


Fangs and Fairytales: Orphans

by wraithe



Series: Fangs and Fairytales [1]
Category: 30 Seconds to Mars
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Blood Drinking, F/M, Mild Gore, Paranormal, Smut, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-20
Updated: 2017-11-20
Packaged: 2018-12-17 23:28:56
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 36,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11861880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wraithe/pseuds/wraithe
Summary: An accident during a show sends Jared and Shannon crashing into a world of supernatural creatures and intrigue.





	1. Chapter 1

  **Tale the First: Orphans**

_Every good collection of fairy tales contains some basic key ingredients: supernatural creatures, tyrants, wicked step-parents, dark and foreboding woods, trickster spirits, vainglorious youths, forbidden love. We begin our collection here, dear reader, with the woeful tale of two orphans, left to fend for themselves in a cruel and unfamiliar world._

 

_Once upon a time....._

 

Masha loved rock concerts. It wasn't the music really; she'd been to and thoroughly enjoyed plenty of shows where the musicians really should have been mowing lawns or serving coffee or working in Daddy's lumber business or whatever generally happened to kids like that when "the band thing" didn't pan out. It was the rush of the crowd, the heady scent of so many people pressed together as their skin flushed and their blood pumped in perfect rhythm with the beat of the music. She didn't understand why they didn't attract more of her kind. She hadn't intended to attend this concert, however.

With a window of time to fill before her meeting and nerves so on edge she had rubbed a raw spot on her finger fidgeting with her ring, Masha had found her way to the large outdoor festival by instinct as much as anything. It was packed. People were pressed together in small groups near the midway, browsing merchandise, drinking, eating, flirting. She pushed past them as she headed back to the area simply designated The Blue Stage where she could hear a band already well into their current set. They had a certain driving quality that she found appealing, so she found a free spot and stopped to enjoy the show. She surveyed the throng with a wary eye, watching as pretty girls in ripped jeans and band t-shirts screamed and swooned at the front of the stage. The lead vocalist, an attractive dark-haired man in heavy eyeliner and face paint, bounced in front of them as he sang. Masha tried to relax, to lose herself in the moment but the tension refused to leave her. Still, the music was really good, and when the chorus came around again she found herself singing along.

 

“ _Run away, run away, I'll attack_

_Run away, run away, go chase yourself_

_Run away, run away, now I'll attack”_

 

She stayed as the songs progressed and changed, enjoying the passion the group performed with and the response of the audience This group really seemed to know how to work a crowd. As they neared the close of their set Masha began to make her way back towards the gate, noticing over her shoulder that the vocalist had begun climbing the scaffolding that surrounded the stage area. The crowd was cheering so loudly at that point that she was sure that no one else heard the terrible groan of metal as it started to tear. Quickly she turned toward the source, realizing too late for even her to stop anything that it was the scaffolding the singer was now perched at the very top of. Helplessly she watched as the erection gave way, sending metal fragments raining into the crowd and tumbling the scaling vocalist to the ground where he landed on his side with a sickening thud. Then the screaming started.

The next few minutes were utter chaos as people began to process what had happened. In addition to the now immobile musician, several people had been injured by falling debris. Panicked patrons were running away from the stage area as others rushed towards it to see to the casualties. Masha could smell not just the blood in the air but panic and confusion as well. It was a heady mix under any circumstances, but coming from as many people as were present here it was nearly overwhelming. She closed her eyes momentarily and tried to calm her senses enough to make it through the crowd but she kept being drawn back toward the injured singer. His injuries were profound, and she could feel how close to death he was. When she tried to reach out her awareness she realized his spine was severed. At least he wasn't in any pain. She doubted he was aware at all. She looked at the handsome man where he lay and thought what a tragic waste it was. He had seemed so vibrant and talented. Even after the short time she had been watching him Masha already found herself rather taken with him. She tried to ignore the thought forming at the back of her head. It was a bad idea. She made her way to the man anyway.

Security had begun surrounding the fallen vocalist. When he fell, Masha had observed the band's drummer, who had kept a watchful eye as his band mate had scaled the scaffolding, go practically flying over his kit as he rushed to the injured man's side. He stood there now, the color drained from his face as he took in the severity of the situation. “Jared you fucking asshole! Why do you have to keep climbing shit?!” he shouted at the still form, alternately reaching towards him, then stepping back, seemingly torn between wanting to help and being afraid of causing more damage. He shakily ran his fingers through his dark hair. Masha didn't need any special awareness to feel the grief and anguish coming from him. She watched as he fell to his knees on the hard ground, leaning in close to his dying companion. “Please little brother, please get up. Please don't do this.”

The two were brothers. An acute sorrow twisted in Masha as she fought to keep memories buried. The others gathered around were clearly upset but this man's heartbreak was, understandably, so much more profound. As much as she had worked to harden her heart in the past decades the drummer's grief was cutting through every wall she had built, and she knew exactly why. The memories wouldn't stay buried long if she didn't leave. Quickly she closed her eyes and started to back away to save herself from the flood of regret that was threatening to overpower her. She knew she shouldn't intervene, that was the beginning of the journey that had gone so wrong before. But this was so needless. A waste. She looked at the kneeling brother who had begun sobbing now, the reality of the situation becoming brutally clear to him. The younger brother, the one he had called Jared, had not so much as twitched since the fall. His head was at an awkward angle, a small trail of blood running from his ear. She realized even they must be aware of how dire the situation was. Masha could still hear his heartbeat but it was slow and very faint now. It would be over soon. She looked at the older brother again. His despair poured from him in waves as someone wrapped their arms around him, trying futilely to reassure him. She couldn't bear it, and she decided she wasn't going to. This time she was going to get it right.

She knew she had very little time. Not only was she almost certain at this point to be late to her meeting with Davrosh, but rescue personnel would be here soon, attempting, however futilely, to save the young man. When that happened she doubted she would be able to get anywhere near him, and there was no way he was going to hang on long enough to make it to the hospital. She needed a plan. And in this thick of a crowd, it was going to have to be a good one.

Searching the pandemonium, Masha spotted a jagged piece of what had once been the ill-fated structure. Scooping it up she surreptitiously cut a deep path along the length of her arm and was immediately rewarded with a generous rush of blood. She tore a length of her shirt loose and tied it around the wound before pushing her way through to the injured man.

"Let me through, I'm a doctor," she lied with a shout. "I was in the crowd." The protective knot around the dying man parted to give her access. She knelt down, making a pretense of examining him. This close up her preternatural senses started telling her more things, none of them good. She needed to get some blood down him now. "He's not getting enough air.” she proclaimed. “We have to stabilize his airway."

Masha positioned herself to camouflage her movements. Working quickly she pulled the improvised bandage from her arm, letting as much blood flow into Jared's mouth as possible. She hoped that it would be sufficient, that it wasn't already too late. With a quick glance around to make sure the group hadn't noticed, she lowered herself to him as if to give him resuscitating breaths, pushing as much of the precious blood into his system as she could. It wouldn't be enough to save him completely or to turn him, but it should buy her enough time to do things properly. She leaned back and waited.

“Shouldn't you keep going? Isn't there something else you can do?” the brother asked.

“He's breathing, just faintly. He's stunned. We need to give him a minute,” she improvised. Masha listened for the sounds of his heartbeat again but she could no longer make it out. She was beginning to think she had been too late, that it hadn't been enough, when Jared took a single rasping breath. His blue eyes opened and he stared straight overhead, unblinking, chest still. His brother took his hand, apparently unafraid of further injuring him now. His body was completely silent. Internally, Masha began to count. One... two... three... four... five... six...

With a hoarse cry Jared drew in a sharp breath of air. Then another. He seemed to be struggling to move. Masha could hear his heartbeat again but it was still very faint and erratic. His brother placed a strong palm on his chest to try to reassure him and keep him from moving.

“Hold still man. Something might be broken.”

 _Too many things to catalog,_ Masha thought. This was not a remotely survivable accident. The supernatural blood had bought him a few more minutes but if she let the medical personnel take him away he would be gone before they could even reach a hospital. Still, there was nothing else she could do here with so many onlookers. Already the paramedics were swarming in, parting the panicked crowd like Moses crossing the Red Sea. They would have him packed up and transported to the nearest hospital in minutes. Masha realized the only thing she could do was get into that ambulance with him. She resumed her previous air of authority and began barking orders at the paramedics, thankful for the skills she had picked up in her time with the Whitehats. “Isolate the C-spine and get him on a back board. We need to transport NOW.”

Miraculously they did as she asked without argument. Masha gave an internal sigh of relief. Using her abilities in a crowd like this was incredibly dangerous and she was glad she hadn't had to resort to Commanding them. As they loaded him into the vehicle she identified herself as a trauma specialist and insisted on accompanying them. The EMT simply nodded and boarded the front of the ambulance. Just as they were about to pull out the older brother flung open the bay doors and climbed into the back, ignoring the protests of the paramedic who was busy working on Jared. Time was running out and Masha realized she could use him. "Just go, just go!" she shouted. When the attending medic began to protest about regulations and liability she leveled her gaze and waited for him to catch her eye before repeating the command. Without another word of argument, he signaled for the driver to pull out.

Masha waited for the ambulance to clear the crowd before beginning her plan of action. She placed a hand on the back of the determined man who was now bent over his brother, watching the paramedic closely as he did his work. “What is your name?” she asked.

“Shannon,” he answered without turning from his brother. She regarded him for a moment, a solid, muscular figure with an intense gaze that on any other day, in any other circumstance, people probably found intimidating. It was in sharp contrast to the love and concern for his little brother that was evident now. They clearly had a very strong bond. Masha felt she had made the right decision to intervene. She just hoped that they wouldn't balk at the cost.

"My name is Masha. Shannon, how badly do you want to save your brother?"

He didn't hesitate. “Anything. Do whatever you need to do.”

She knew he couldn't possibly have in mind what was about to happen, but that would have to do. With a nod, Masha acknowledged him, then, with an unnatural swiftness, swept the paramedic into his chair. Pressing down on his throat, she had him unconscious in seconds. Shannon's eyes widened. “Listen to me carefully,” she told him. “Your brother's injuries are too severe to be survivable. His spine is severed. There is multiple organ damage. He's bleeding out internally. We have minutes. Maybe not even that.”

“How can you know....”

Masha ignored the question and continued on. “Move to the opening there so the driver can't see us.” He hesitated, looking between her and Jared's rapidly failing form. “It's this or nothing. I'm sorry. Please understand I don't do this lightly.” He hesitated for another moment and Masha briefly toyed with the idea of Commanding him but then he moved where she had indicated and gave her a nod of acquiescence.

As Masha turned to look down at the unconscious young man another wave of sorrow gripped her. Everything he was going to be was about to be potentially washed away. She wondered what his dreams had been, if he had wanted more than the life on stage that was all of him that she had seen so far. He would have to be so much more careful with his public exposure from here on out. Who knew what that would do to his career. How would he continue in the public eye when they started to realize he wasn't aging? As for his personal life, was there a girl somewhere waiting to fill their house with tiny feet? Did he already have children, children that he would now watch grow old before him? She reminded herself it didn't matter anymore. He was as good as dead without her intervention. She was taken nothing from him, all those things were already lost to him. She was only giving. This was the only way he would have any kind of future at all. It didn't stop the flood of sorrow as she used her teeth to open the vein at her wrist.

“What the fuck, are you crazy lady?” Shannon exclaimed as she let her blood flow into Jared's open mouth. Masha didn't respond, her attention on the task at hand. There was still a heartbeat there as he stubbornly clung to life. That stubbornness had kept him going long enough to give him this chance now, but she needed him to let go. She needed him to drink.

“Come on!” she exclaimed through gritted teeth. Any minute now the driver might become suspicious of what was going on here, or Shannon might panic and try to interfere. Frantically she slapped at the sides of his face. Maybe he was too far gone. Masha was about to place her hand under his neck to try a different position when saw the first swallow. It was an agonizingly long ten seconds before there was another, but another soon followed after that one and then the reaction started, animating Jared's limbs and causing him to grab for Masha's wrist as the hunger took over. It was a bittersweet victory as she listened to his heart still for good this time.

As Jared drank at her wrist she looked to Shannon still standing behind him. His smudged and ruined eyeliner stood in stark relief now that any remaining color had gone from his face. She waited for the question. It was easier if they at least started to get there on their own.

“Are you....?” She could see him warring with himself, unable to say the word that must sound completely ridiculous to him, but the connections had been made. “Is he going to be...?”

"A vampire. That's the word you're looking for. And yes, if we're putting it in the most simple of terms." There was so much to explain and Masha was painfully aware of how little time they had. It had been the best decision in the moment, but now reality was setting in quickly. She needed to do this fast. "I don't have much time so I need you to listen carefully. There is an entire supernatural world out there. Vampires are just one tiny part of it. Think of every fairy tale you've ever heard. Most of them have their seeds in reality. What I am, what your brother now is, is an undead creature called a Moroi. We're part of what the western vampire myths were based on."

Shannon stood frozen, looking at his brother drinking from the tall woman's wrist. "Undead," he finally said in a measured tone.

"Well, you're a quick one.” Masha was a little impressed with the fact that he was speaking at all and not screaming for help in a blind panic. “Yes. Technically, he just died." Masha turned back to Jared who had dropped her wrist and stopped drinking from her but clearly was still in the throes of the transformation. His eyes were wide open and unblinking, his chest was still and he would have looked for all the world to be dead if it wasn't for the way his hands shook at his sides. Gently she traced her hand down the side of his face, already feeling the bond as it started to form. He was her responsibility now. And she was about to abandon him. "Look, it's going to take a while for his body to heal, the damage was pretty severe. By then I'll need to be gone. So you've got to remember all this so you can explain it to him."

Shannon's expression changed from shock to fury. “Gone? You can't just turn someone into an undead... whatever and then just skate!”

“Moroi. But vampire is fine. And really I have no choice, I was on my way somewhere and that appointment cannot be avoided. I shouldn't have stopped to change him, I don't really have the time to spare, but I couldn't bear to see the two of you like that.” Shannon was breathing hard, his hands in his hair as he tried to process the situation. “I'm sorry. I'm sorry about all of this.” She hated that it had to be done this way. She wanted to calm him, to reassure him that all of this could be dealt with, could be managed but it was more important to make him understand the reality of the situation they were in. “When I am done I will come back for you but that might be a few days.”

Shannon took a few cautious steps towards his brother, watching him quietly as he struggled with whatever supernatural processes were keeping him there. "In a few days, we'll be in Virginia."

She somehow doubted that they wouldn't be canceling at least a few shows after this disaster but didn't have time to argue. “It doesn't matter. I can find him.” Thankfully Shannon didn't insist on an explanation of that claim. “Listen. He will need to drink blood now to survive. Human blood. Don't bother buying animal blood at the butcher, everyone tries that, this isn't some sappy TV show, that won't work. But this isn't a monster movie either. No one has to end up dead, not as long as he feeds often, just taking in small amounts. Don't let him get too hungry, it will make it harder to maintain control. He's going to need a bunch of blood tonight, though, to finish the change and repair all this damage. I'll steal some from the hospital before we go." She looked to make sure Shannon was still listening. "Forget the other vampire myths. Sunlight can be problematic, but only because we blister and burn easily. Make sure he keeps as much skin as possible covered outside during the day and uses lots of strong sunscreen.” She looked down at Jared who had stopped shaking and had begun to blink his eyes in a more normal resemblance of health. “He'll only forget once, trust me. That's not the biggest thing, however. There are a lot of sensory changes that come with this. He'll be able to sense emotions strongly, smell things he's never smelled before. Adrenaline. Fear. Hear hearts beating. There are new awarenesses. It will be overwhelming. He will most likely be confused and disoriented for the next few days. It may even leave him completely incapacitated. It's different for everyone. Try and help him through it." Masha looked up and saw that the hospital building was visible now in the ambulance window. "Do NOT let on what you are. I cannot stress that enough. There are rules and bodies that enforce them and the penalty for revealing ourselves is severe. Do not let them examine him at the hospital. Do whatever it takes to get away from there as quickly as possible."

“I want to be one too.” Shannon brushed his hand through his little brother's hair. 'He shouldn't have to do this alone.”

Masha barely stifled the urge to tell him off. “Yes, what a great idea. Let's compound the problem by making two brand new baby vampires and leaving them to fend for themselves while I run off to...” she stopped herself. No sense in scaring them any more than they already were. “Don't. Just don't. Please. Don't try it. His blood isn't strong enough, won't be for years. You'll only kill yourself. Then he truly will be alone. I'll be back for you as soon as I can. Take care of him until then.” The ambulance drew to a stop in the emergency bay. “I'm going to go get that blood. There should be some confusion when they realize that he” she gestured towards the still limp paramedic in the seat “is unconscious. Make it sound like he was having a heart attack so they'll make a fuss over him. I'll be right back.”

Sure enough, once the EMT came around and found his partner slumped in the back all hell broke loose. Since Jared had begun to move at that point they were able to deflect the attention fairly easily. In minutes Masha was back with a large duffel bag which she handed to Shannon.

“Take this. Make sure he drinks all of but the last four pouches. Save those to manage his hunger until I get back. Hole up somewhere. The quieter and more out of the way the better. Make whatever excuse you need to but he's going to need a few days away from everyone else to go through the change. Help him as much as you can. I'll find you and come back to you the soonest I am able. Good luck. Be careful.” Then with a whirl of her white-blonde hair, she was gone.

 


	2. Chapter 2

_As Masha pulled into the warehouse parking lot she glanced at the clock on the dash again. Over forty-five minutes late. She hated to leave Davrosh and the others waiting like this but the sight of Shannon on the ground, desperate and helpless, had nearly broken her. As ashamed as she was to have caved in to sentiment and interfered where she knew she shouldn't, she was even more ashamed of the intense internal debate it had taken her before doing so. She was becoming hardened, and though she probably should have spent some time examining why, she had to set aside her existential crisis for the time being. The hard truth was she didn't have time for any of it right now, Shannon's grief or her own remorse. She pushed her feelings away and got out of the car._

_The dark silence of the warehouse hadn't set off any alarm bells on its own, and Masha had been too lost in her own head to think about properly checking the area. But the second the car door closed Masha knew something was very wrong. The building wasn't the only still thing; the breezeless night held an unnatural emptiness. Every living thing in the building's radius had fled, as far as Masha could tell. The building itself felt like a hole in the world, as if it did not exist but was merely a painting, an illusion of some sort. Her friends should have been waiting for her inside but she couldn't feel anything coming from the structure. She quieted herself and reached out with her senses, she should have at least been able to feel Davrosh regardless of where he was, but there was nothing, just a menacing hush where things should be. She knew she should probably leave, this was the way stupid humans in horror films died, but there was no telling if Davrosh and the others were inside, if they were in trouble, or if they needed her help. She braced herself and headed towards the entrance._

 

Shannon opened the duffel to find a dozen or so chilled bags of whole blood. Most of the labels were marked with large “O”s but two had “A”s on them. He briefly wondered if they tasted differently before fishing out an “O” and handing it to Jared, who sat on the edge of the bed staring at the dark hotel carpeting. He hadn't said a word, not in the ambulance, or while Shannon was trying to convince the doctors he was just stunned and needed to go back to the hotel to rest, or in the car on the drive back. He just kept staring, his blue eyes almost unblinking. It was scaring the hell out of Shannon. What if Masha had intervened too late? What if there wasn't enough of Jared to come back?

“You need to drink that,” he said to Jared, trying to sound as firm and sure of himself as possible under the circumstances. “She said you need to drink most of these. You'd better get started.” Jared shifted his gaze to the cool pouch but made no move to open or consume it. Shannon rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. He felt like he had aged ten years in the last hour. “Jay, please...”

He knelt in front of Jared, taking his younger brother's hands while he tried not to let his voice shake. "I called Mom. I told her you were okay, that you'd just been stunned by the fall." Jared finally looked at Shannon for the first time since arriving at the hotel, but his face was flat and unreadable. Shannon did not find it reassuring. "Don't make me have lied to her." Shannon pleaded.

Jared didn't respond further, didn't seem to really understand anything that was going on at all. Shannon took the bag back from him and examined it, trying to figure out the best way to get at its contents before opening the long tube at the end. He gave the bag a squeeze and a tiny amount flowed out. It wasn't much but maybe it would be enough to get Jared's appetite started. "Hey look," he told him, sounding a bit like a parent trying to get his toddler to eat some mashed peas. "It's got its own straw. It's like a big vampire Capri Sun. You liked those when we were kids. Remember Jenny Margolis's birthday party?" They had been eleven and twelve years old and had started a food fight by squirting the drink packets at each other. In the end, once the other kids had joined in, there was birthday cake and melted ice cream everywhere, and their mother was called to come pick them up and take them home immediately. They never were invited over again, but they regretted nothing. It had been hilarious. He took the tube and placed it in Jared's mouth, giving it a little squeeze. When Jared finally started drinking Shannon was so relieved he almost cried.

 

_The minute Masha opened the door impressions rushed in on her, flooding her senses, most of them profoundly bad. The abrupt change told her she had just broken a magical seal and she wondered who had left it. There was a possibility that it had been erected by one of the hexen Davrosh always traveled with, to protect whoever was inside. It was equally possible that it was hiding an ambush. She tried to make sense of the tangle of scents and impressions that deluged her, there were traces of fear and anger but it was mostly overrun with the cloying scent of Moroi blood and the feeling of death. She reached out further. With a start, she realized she was not alone. Her senses were overwhelmed and the presences were muted, but she could tell there were others inside._

_Carefully she advanced through the cavernous darkness. Her stomach grew sick as her eyes adjusted, lighting on a dark tangle of figures in the center of the wide concrete floor. A few more cautious steps forward left her surveying what was left of Riva and Metz, a pair of Moroi that she had worked with many times in her years with the Underground. Of course they had died together, inches apart, Riva probably trying with his last breath to touch the other vampire one final time. Both their heads had been removed and placed at their feet, leaving no doubt that the killer knew who and what they were dealing with. Masha was pretty sure they wanted whoever found them to know that too. She couldn't help but wonder when it had happened. Had they been waiting for her to show, waiting for reinforcements that never came? Had her decision to stop to help the brothers who had so unexpectedly tugged at her heart cost her friends their lives?_

_She pushed the thoughts away, knowing there was no time to indulge in self-recrimination. Masha stilled herself to listen for the others that she now knew were there. She tried to pinpoint the impressions but they stayed just out of her reach, as if her senses were so swamped she couldn't sort it out further. After a long moment, she caught the tiniest scurrying noise, so small it could be a rat, coming from behind a door. As she moved closer to it the cloying scent of spilled vampiric blood grew stronger again. Steeling herself, she pulled it open._

_Her knees nearly gave out when she found what waited inside. Davrosh. Masha had been afraid it would be him. Her progenitor, mentor, and protector for the last four decades lay in a bloody heap over several crates, his pale skin luminescent against the warehouse's darkness. She rolled him onto his back on the floor to better assess the damage. A quick examination told her he needed blood and a lot of it, but he was still alive. While she contemplated the second blood bank robbery of her night she realized there were other scents in the small room, something Davrosh's spilled blood had covered up. Her brain flashed through the scene again, Riva and Metz lying on the large warehouse floor, no one else in sight, Davrosh left behind, bloodied, incapacitated but alive and with no other signs of a struggle. He had been protecting something, masking it with his body and blood, she was sure of it. The other presences felt stronger in this room too, not just Davrosh. Masha tore open the crates but found only machine parts inside, useless hunks of metal in protective packaging. She realized she was reacting in a sort of blind panic, desperate to undo what she was increasingly sure was her own fault. She had tried to remedy one past error just to pile on another, possibly worse one. She quieted herself again, hoping for another audible clue. The scratching came again, louder this time, directly beneath her. Shoving the crates aside, she discovered a small hatch in the floor which she flung open without hesitation. Four amber eyes stared back at her from the darkness. She understood now what had gone wrong._

 

Shannon stepped back out of the bathroom, tossing the damp towel next to the bed where Jared was still sleeping. Once he had gotten him to start drinking it had been all Shannon could do to keep the bags coming fast enough. After finishing as many as Masha had instructed, Jared had laid down without a word and gone straight off to sleep. At least Shannon assumed it was sleep. He really didn't seem to be breathing. Taking his phone in hand, Shannon settled into the adjoining bed and set about trying to put out the fires this whole mess had started.

Without a phone or money at the hospital (they'd been in the middle of a damn show after all), he had been hard pressed to get away but had fortunately found a young woman who recognized them and was eager to help. She hadn't seemed too put off by Jared's silence. She had simply driven them back to their hotel, where Shannon gathered his and Jared's things, and then helped him find this little dive motel where, with any luck, no one would find them anytime soon. He had kept her name and number, he was going to have to do something nice to thank her once everything settled down, but right now his focus was on Jared.

Once they had checked in and he got Jared to drink, the phone calls and lying began. So much of it, he was sure he hadn't kept the story straight and sooner or later someone was going to bust it wide open, but for now, at least. they had some peace and quiet. Hopefully, it would last long enough for Jared to pull out of whatever sort of mending stage he was going through now. The sooner that happened the better. He needed to talk to Jared again. He had never felt so alone.

As he checked his phone, he found most of the waiting messages were simply notes of concern and support. He began texting back those who couldn't wait. Yes, Jared was fine. Banged up, bruised and sore and needing rest but he would fine in a few days. They were just avoiding the media circus, please don't be concerned, etc. Unsurprisingly some people were pretty pissed that they had gone into hiding. There were demands for phone calls to be returned immediately but Shannon had no idea what he would even say. He was sure there was going to be some sort of official inquiry to face and he had no idea how he was going to deal with any of that. He needed Jared to wake up. He needed Masha to come back. He needed help and he had no idea where it would be coming from.

Shannon sat the phone down and flipped on the small motel room television. He was equal parts wired and exhausted, but as the adrenaline crash took hold, his eyes started to droop and he began to find the sleep he so desperately craved. As he felt his breathing slow and his limbs grow heavy, the movie changed from the old Bond film he had turned on to "The Lost Boys". He threw his pillow at the TV so hard it sent it crashing to the ground.

 

_Deep in the small hidden cellar, Masha looked at the small still form of a young woman who lay unconscious at the feet of the pair of adolescent girls clutching each other in the darkness. She bent down to examine her more closely, taking in her light brown hair and delicate features, but she did not recognize her. There were three other people that she did know, that should have been at the meeting that weren't here, and she could sense no one else in the warehouse. She would have to do a sweep of the building to be sure, but more immediately she needed to secure the survivors._

_She wasn't sure how they ended up with the sisters. Whispers wasn't supposed to have had any of his so called shipments coming in before next week, and his people were the only ones operating in this area that she was aware of. Of course anyone that could have answered that question for her was either unconscious, dead or missing. The girls would be no help, and it was likely whoever had wreaked all this havoc would be back. She told the girls to stay put and closed the door, replacing the camouflaging crates just in case she was interrupted. She left one empty and dragged it back out to the main warehouse floor, where she sadly stowed Riva and Metz's remains. She then loaded the crate into the cargo area of the SUV and laid out a tarp she could put Davrosh on. Once they were all loaded and covered, she quickly she went back inside to sweep the building. As she suspected, she found no one. She cleaned up the traces of Moroi blood as best she could under the circumstances and turned her attention back to to the mysterious cellar and its occupants._

_Entering the underground hiding place she again examined the mysterious woman. There was no reason she could determine for her lack of consciousness, but as hard as she tried she could not wake her. With a sigh of frustration she scooped her up, intending to load her into the truck along with the others, but when she lifted her something fell from her hand and shattered on the floor. The air in the small space seemed to shimmer briefly, then coalesce and fall like a curtain cut loose from its hangings. Alarmed, she realized she had broken whatever protection spell had been hiding the three girls. She had found Davrosh's missing hexe. And now that they were exposed, she could feel Whispers's goons, lurking very close by. She had to get everyone out of there before they started feeling her back._

_Barely swallowing her panic she hurried the girls up the stairs. They followed mutely, arms tangled around each other the entire way. She quickly loaded everyone into the truck, lying the young hexe down on the back seat next to the shaking sisters. Just as she closed the rear gate one of the girls let out an ethereal shriek so powerful it almost knocked the wind from her. Turning quickly, Masha spotted four figures emerging from the woods lining the edge of the warehouse lot. The terror in the girls' faces and the speed at which the figures moved told her all she needed to know. She bolted into the driver's seat and sped away as quickly as she could go, leaving the advancing forces with nothing but a spray of gravel._

 

Somewhere just before dawn, Shannon rolled over in bed to find Jared standing a foot away from the motel room door, staring at it, still as death. With a groan, Shannon sat up in the bed.

“Jay, you have got to stop doing this spooky ass shit, I can't take much more.”

“Sorry.,” he responded without turning away. It was the first word Jared had spoken since the fall. “I don't know what I'm doing.”

Shannon wasn't sure if he meant he didn't know why he was staring at the door or he was just generally confused, but it didn't matter to him. His brother was talking again. “Do you need anything? There's some more blood left. I put it in the mini-fridge.” There was no further response. Shannon stayed on the bed, watching as Jared turned his head from side to side as if he saw something much more profound than just an ugly yellow security door. After about ten minutes of this, Shannon grabbed his pillow and began stretching himself back out on the lumpy bed, settling in for what he assumed would be a long watch. He was back up in an instant when Jared abruptly jumped back from the door.

“What the hell? What's...” he was interrupted by a forceful pounding on the opposite side of the door. He was about to say something else when Jared was suddenly on top of him, clamping his hand over his mouth and staring wildly into his eyes.

“Little pig, little pig.....” The singsonging voice on the other side of the door was low and dripping with menace. Shannon tried to wiggle out from under his brother but Jared had him pinned too firmly. Jared looked down at him and shook his head.

“Oh come come now, little pig, I know you're in there. Smelled you all the way from the road.” Whatever was on the other side of the door made a lewd sucking noise. Someone else laughed. With a shudder, Shannon wondered which one of them was supposed to be the pig.

Whoever was on the other side of the door began pounding again. “Aw, piggy is scared. Come on little pig, let me in. I'll be good. I promise.” This was followed by more laughs. Shannon desperately tried to free himself from Jared; being pinned and helpless was just making him feel more afraid, but Jared just pushed him further into the mattress. The mysterious visitors moved to the window, tapping loudly, making Shannon feel like a goldfish trapped in a tiny bowl. He was acutely aware there was nowhere to escape to, the only exits were the ones their menacing visitors already had covered. All he could do was hope whoever it was got bored and went away. The preternatural terror on Jared's face told him that, if they ever got inside, whatever was waiting on the other side of that door was not something they were going to be able to fight their way through.

“Open the fucking door!!!” Something large and solid connected with the metal so forcefully that Shannon could feel the bed shake. Jesus Christ, what was out there? What if it battered the door open? It certainly sounded capable. “Fucking piece of shit Moroi, one of you has my toys, and I'm not going to stand for any fucking THIEVERY!” The voice had reached an unnatural timbre, somewhere between a growl and a scream. The surge of terror Shannon felt at the sound seemed pulled up from a place of buried instinct. A few more impacts on the door punctuated the aggressive declaration. Moroi. They wanted Jared. They probably had no idea he was only just born, knew probably less than they did about whatever the hell was going on.

“Come on little pig,” the voice on the other side of the door had changed timbre again, approximating what it probably thought was a soothing, reassuring tone. It missed the mark completely. “If you help me out I promise I'll let you and your little snack go. I know you don't have my girls in there. I just want them back, that's all. Just a little info, something so I can find what's already mine.”

Shannon could hear pacing outside as they waited for a response. Jared removed his hand from over Shannon's' mouth but put his finger to his lips to tell him to stay silent. Moving with a sinewy grace Shannon was sure he hadn't possessed yesterday, Jared stepped off of the bed and crept to the window. He looked through the crack in the curtains for a minute then signaled back to Shannon with three fingers. Suddenly the visitor on the other side of the door gave out a roar of frustration that caused Jared to do another backward jump. He began pounding on the window, shouting in a language that Shannon couldn't identify. He was certain they would breach the room at any minute and he couldn't find anything more menacing to hold them off with than a cell phone or a pillow. Then the pounding and shouting stopped and everything went silent.

The brothers stayed in place, too afraid to move, listening to the quiet early morning noises of the hotel. When nothing else seemed to be happening, Jared finally checked the window crack again.

“Gone,” he reported. “There's no one out there.”

"What the hell? Where did they go?" Shannon got up from the bed and went to check the window himself. Outside the motel, the oil spotted parking lot was empty save for a few cars and an elderly pickup truck. The sun was rising just behind an overflowing dumpster. There was no sign anyone was out there or had been there in hours. He turned around to see Jared sitting on the edge of the bed, head in hands.

“Shan, what happened to me?

 


	3. Chapter 3

"Silas, I'm in trouble." Masha leaned against the cool tinted glass of the truck window, phone to her opposite ear. The last thing she wanted to do was drag her brother back into this. They hadn't spoken in several years, not since the incident that had left him a widower and Masha with a karmic debt she was now fighting to repay. He had made it very clear he wanted nothing more to do with Davrosh, Masha or the Underground. But it felt like fate that this had all happened here, the one place Silas was. At any rate, Masha had nowhere else to turn right now. She could only hope that time had at least made his wounds less raw, even if they weren't entirely healed. “Please. I need your help. Things went sideways...”

“I'm not involved in the underground anymore Mash,” he interrupted. “You know that. I can't help you.”

Masha had expected the denial but pressed on anyway. "Please. Riva and Metz are dead. Davrosh is badly injured, the rest of the cell is missing and all I've got is an unconscious hexe I can't talk to and Whispers's next shipment that I don't know how we ended up with. I don't know what's happening but I know he'll be after me soon. Please."

There was a long pause. “Just call whoever was supposed to intercept them originally then. I don't need this shit. The locals here are...”

"Dammit Silas, come on. Don't you think I'd have done that if it were an option? We were supposed to be the intercept, but not for several days, and Davrosh was the only one with the information. We were supposed to be meeting to formulate our plan when they were attacked. Do you think I want this? Do you think I'm running around out here looking for excuses to turn your life upside down again? Do you think I would call you if I had any other option at all?" Masha thumped her head against the window. She didn't want to do this, didn't want to dredge things up that were better left where they lay. "I wouldn't ask if I weren't desperate. Please. It's Davrosh." There was no response. "He needs you, Silas. This is family asking. Not some random Underground operative. If it weren't for him...." she trailed off, knowing Silas didn't need reminding that Davrosh was the only reason he still woke each day. She was ashamed for even bringing it up. She never liked guilt trips, but she had to convince Silas to help them or she might as well just surrender to Whispers now.

The silence on the line lasted far longer than Masha would have thought, definitely longer than she liked. She was trying to think of another way to sway Silas from his apparently unmovable determination to stay out of the fray when his low voice on the other end responded.

“2503 Gardner. Pull around the back. Bring your own blood.”

The line went dead. With a deep sigh, Masha took a moment to focus then pulled back out on the road, making a quick u-turn. Time to clean up her mess.

 

In the now quiet motel room, Jared and Shannon sat opposite each other on the cheap beds. Shannon had explained the events after Jared's fall as best as he could but there was little to tell beyond that. Masha had taken any real explanations with her when she made her hasty exit. But Shannon had waited all night to hear his brother's voice again and he wanted to keep him talking, even if he couldn't give him the information he knew he must be craving. He decided to change the subject.

“Do you think they're still out there waiting for us to leave? Or did they realize we don't have whoever they were looking for and take off?”

Jared shrugged. “I don't think they're out there anymore. I don't...” Jared searched for the proper word but fell short. “I don't sense them out there anymore. Or whatever.” He stood up from the bed, stretching his arms. His limbs felt strange now, strong and oddly fluid. “With all that commotion I guess it's a good thing the rooms next to us are empty.”

“How do you know that?” Shannon asked.

Jared shrugged again. He had always been the talker of the two of them but words suddenly seemed utterly inadequate. How could he tell Shannon that the room still absolutely reeked of a smell that Jared was pretty sure was Shannon's fear? Or that he knew there were exactly seven birds in the stand of trees by the parking lot, or that the guy in the room three doors down had some bad sleep apnea that he probably needed to see his doctor about very soon. There was so much information flooding him now. He tried to untangle the pieces of it all. He could tell that the comforters in here hadn't been washed since the last occupants had ordered a pepperoni and green pepper pizza, which they had apparently sat on the bed because the smell was very strong there. He could hear Shannon's heart currently thumping along at 74 beats per minute, which was much slower than it had been just a few minutes ago. He also knew that Shannon hadn't had a drink since a little bourbon before the show last night but he could still smell it in his sweat.

It went beyond all these sounds and smells though. There was an awareness attached to it that was as fascinating as it was unsettling. Some of it was as clear as if there were little notes attached to the objects he was examining, but most of it was fuzzier, little things that tickled at the edge of his awareness, things he couldn't quite articulate. There was one particular something tugging at him now. He got up and went to the window again, just in time to see a dark blue SUV pull into the lot and park just outside their door. As the willowy woman with white blonde hair stepped out of the driver's side Jared felt a rush of emotion course through him like a tide. Without another thought, he opened the metal security door and waited.

“Jay, what the hell are you doing now?” Shannon exclaimed, crossing the room in an instant, afraid of whatever Jared might be about to allow entry. He stopped short when he caught sight of Masha “Thank God. I thought you said it was going to be days...”

"Things are... developing," Masha said darkly as she swept into the room. "Don't be happy I'm here ahead of schedule. It's not good news." She spotted the small room fridge and crossed to it, taking out the four remaining blood bags. “I need you to get your things and get in the truck. Where is the bag for these?"

Shannon balked. “What? No. I need some answers. This is just way too much to keep swallowing blindly!” He could see Masha's expression turning angry but he was too fed up to care. “Look, I'm grateful and all, but we're in the dark here and you've got us running like prison escapees.”

"Fine! '" Masha shouted, the stress of having everything falling onto her shoulders taking its toll. "Pack. Don't pack. Whatever. But I'm leaving in three minutes and I'm taking my new child here with me. If you want to stay with him you'll have your ass in that car." Masha gritted her teeth and started looking around for their bags. When Shannon made no move to comply she tried leveling with him. "Look, I've made a mess, okay? A really big one. I should have been meeting someone instead of playing rescuing angel with you two and now...” She trailed off, her stomach sick. It was so much worse to admit it out loud. And she knew it was going to scare them and she didn't need them any more afraid than they already were. “I was late and now people are dead and it's probably my own fucking fault. I don't want or need any of this shit either but here we are." She found an overnight bag and shoved it into Shannon's arms. "Two of my friends, two amazing guys that this world really fucking needed are gone, and the things that killed them are probably going to find you and your brother here eventually. I'm guessing sooner rather than later because you two are clueless and don't know how to hide yet. My friends were a lot stronger and tougher than you are, so how do you think you'll fare when these assholes come round for you? So stop fighting me and get your shit before they show up at your door. Unless you want to end up dead too, and then all of this was for nothing.”

“I think they were already here,” Jared said quietly.

“What?” Masha wheeled around in alarm.

Shannon started shoving clothes back into the bag, not wanting to upset Masha any further. He may have wanted answers but more importantly, he wanted to stay alive. He figured the answers could wait. “About thirty minutes ago,” he explained. “Someone tried to get into the room. Pounded and shouted and threatened, demanded we open the door for them but then they went away.”

"Not human," Jared added solemnly.

“Jesus Fuck! And you're still not wanting to leave?” Masha grabbed Jared by the arm. “Did I choose a pair of idiots to save?”

Jared pulled back from her grip but didn't argue. “We're coming. Right Shannon?”

Shannon didn't reply, just kept stuffing their belongings into bags. Jared joined in and In a few minutes, all traces of their brief stay were gone and after a quick warning to Jared to cover up, Masha was hurrying them to the truck with the other fugitives.

“Don't look in the back,” Masha told the brothers as she prompted them into the waiting vehicle. She pulled another duffel bag out of the passenger seat before putting Shannon there. When she handed the bag back to him to hold, its coolness and weight told him it was probably more blood. He wondered why they needed so much. She put Jared in the back with the girls, propping the unconscious hexe between them. Jared looked at the huddled girls with open curiosity, taking in their wild tangles of reddish brown hair and orange gold fox-like eyes. He then turned his attention to the woman next to him, whose head kept falling onto his shoulder.

“Who are they?” he asked as he tried to steady the young hexe so her head wasn't flopping about. He ended up leaving her reclining against him as he tucked her hair back from her face for reasons he couldn't articulate.

“That's a more complicated answer than I have the time or patience for right now,” Masha answered sharply. “Just don't try to talk to the girls. Trust me. You don't want to hear what comes out of their mouths.” She put the SUV into gear and headed out of the lot. “No more talking now. I need to think.”

“But I don't understand what's going on....”

“No. More. Talking.” Masha enunciated. Jared opened his mouth to argue but found himself unable to do anything other than comply. He looked at Shannon, slumped resignedly in the front seat and realized no one was getting any more answers right now. Jared sighed, laid his head against the window and waited for the next stop on this wild ride.

 

“So are you going to tell me what the hell is happening? Do I even want to know?”

2503 Gardener had turned out to be an abandoned department store in the urban graveyard of the city's old downtown. Silas had been waiting at the old loading bay doors and Masha had pulled the entire vehicle inside while he locked up behind her. She unloaded the brothers first, putting Shannon in charge of the young sisters and handing the still unresponsive hexe to Jared to carry, then she had fetched the incapacitated Davrosh from under the tarp in the back seat. She waited for Silas to direct them where to go but he just stood there beside the car, arms crossed and brow furrowed, waiting for explanations.

“Whispers,” Masha said. “I'm pretty sure Whispers is what is happening. So as long as it is his people we have until sunset to figure out a plan and get out of your hair.” She inclined her head towards Davrosh. “Is there somewhere I can put him down?”

Silas began leading the group towards a small office just off the main area. “Who are they?” he asked, gesturing to the rest of the group.

“I don't know who the woman is, beyond the fact that she's a hexe that was helping to hide the girls,” Masha answered, attempting to avoid having to explain the brothers, at least for another few minutes. Silas gave Masha a dark look, aware of her deflection, but let it go for the moment.

The office was larger than Masha had expected. There were various worn furnishings in addition to the expected desk and chair. She instructed Jared to put down the hexe in a large upholstered chair and then laid Davrosh out on the sofa. She opened the duffel and took out a bag of the blood she had brought and handed it to Jared. “Feed him,” she said, gesturing to Davrosh's prone form

Masha then turned her attention to Silas, realizing that this was the first time she had seen him in over three years. He looked exactly the same of course, a slightly built man with warm brown eyes he hid behind wire framed glasses he no longer needed, an affectation Masha had never understood. He still wore his hair long in front, one side falling across his face as always and Masha had to resist the familiar urge to tuck it back behind his ear. He looked like someone's gentle-natured history professor, not at all like the man who had once torn apart a bunyip with his bare hands. God, she hated dragging him back into all this. He deserved better. “I fucked up.”

“I gathered that much.” He gestured to the two brothers. “What's with these two? The girls I understand but....”

“I think we're the fuck up,” Shannon said.

“I went to a concert,” Masha said wryly. “There was an accident. That one,” she motioned to Jared, “Fell from some scaffolding. He was injured and dying. The other one is his brother.” She paused, searching Silas's face for understanding

“Masha....” His voice was rife with both pity and condemnation. She wasn't really sure what she had expected from him but the way he was looking at her now made her stomach roil with shame.

“He was so heartbroken Silas,” she tried to explain. “It was too much. I couldn't stand by and watch it happen again.”

“It's never going to change what you did Masha,” Silas replied evenly.

“I know that.” Masha snapped. “Nothing is ever going to change that. I have to live with that mistake but it doesn't mean I have to make another one. The problem is it took a lot longer than I thought it would so I was late to meet with the team. By the time I got there ...” She gestured weakly at Davrosh.

Silas tucked his hair back behind his ear while he shook his head. “Yeah, you fucked up all right.”

“Yeah, and I think Whispers found them already. They were supposed to be hiding out while I went to the meeting, but someone showed up at the motel they were staying in.” She considered Davrosh, who had begun to drink the blood that Jared was holding for him. She wondered how long it would take before he came to and started giving them answers. “Of course they didn't let them in, but the fact that they didn't force their way in and disappeared right after the sun came up...”

“Yeah, that sounds like Whispers all right,” Silas remarked darkly. “Well, at least it's early. We have a while to formulate a plan.”

“So you'll help me?”

“What choice do I have?” Silas went to kneel next to Davrosh, taking in his injuries. “He's going to be no use for a while. Do we have any idea where the girls were going or how to get them back to their people?”

“No. We weren't even supposed to be handling them yet. According to the information we had, Whispers wasn't bringing them in until Monday. This was just supposed to be a planning meeting, not an intercept. I don't know why they were already in town or how they ended up in that warehouse. I don't know how Davrosh got hurt, I don't even know for sure if it was Whispers or his pack. If we could find Astrid or Cotton....”

Shannon cleared his throat. “Could someone, maybe, please tell me what the hell is happening? You know, instead of ordering me around then ignoring me and talking about me like I'm not right here. '

“Now is not a good time...” Masha began but Shannon cut her off.

“No, and it wasn't a good time before and it doesn't sound like it's going to be a good time for a while. You can't keep using that as an excuse to have a conversation that I think you really don't want to have.” He looked at Silas. “Are you a vampire too?”

Silas rolled his eyes and looked back to Masha. “What did you tell them?”

“Not much. There wasn't time. Vampires are real. Don't tell anyone. Wear some sunscreen.”

“Shit. And then you left them to meet up with Davrosh I assume?" Masha nodded weakly in response. "What the hell Masha? You've gone completely off the rails.”

Shannon grabbed a coffee mug that had been sitting on the table by the sofa and hurled it at the wall, shattering it loudly. “Right. Fucking. Here!” he exclaimed, rage and frustration finally reaching the boiling point. “I get that I'm not in your damn supernatural club or whatever but I'm wrapped up in this all the same now so answers need start happening. What is going on?”

Masha looked at Shannon as if for the first time. He had been so full of tender concern for his brother and had taken in the evening's developments with such relative calm that she was surprised to find a hot temper lurking under all that. She was going to have to pay closer attention to him, assuming they all made it through this. “Fine, calm down. You aren't going to like any of this, but where would you like me to start?”

Shannon looked around at the room full of odd faces and wondered if he was the only human there. “You said fairy tale things were real. That seems like a good place.”

Masha sighed and looked to Jared again. He had said maybe two words since arriving at the abandoned store. He sat at Davrosh's feet now, watching the elder vamp drink from the blood bags Masha had provided. He had seemed so dynamic when he was performing, quite the contrast to the solemn figure he cut now. She supposed he was still in shock. The transformation could be extremely traumatic for some. Perhaps some explanations would help.

“All right. Stop me if I go too fast or you get lost.” Shannon sat down, assuming this was going to take a while. Masha took a breath and continued. “Most fairy tales have their basis in reality. Humans have always lived along side all sorts of other creatures but the relationship has never been an amicable one. Humans don't even like other humans that are different than them. They really are not tolerant of things that aren't human at all.”

Silas nodded, sitting on the edge of the desk and took his glasses off. Looking every bit the part of the friendly professor, he continued the lecture. “Now as you can imagine from the tales, some of these supernatural creatures tormented or hunted humans but not all of them. Not even most actually. However, the ones that did, they created so much fear and hatred that eventually humans wouldn't tolerate any supes in their midst. And yes, supes are stronger than humans but we're rare. There are so many more of you than there are of us. There's no way we would prevail if it came to blows. Plus, at least some of us, need you.”

Masha saw the way Shannon winced at that last statement and knew he understood his place in the food chain. If she thought he was going to protest however she was mistaken. He continued to listen patiently. She continued the explanation. “So we live in secret. We police ourselves, we have rules and organizations that enforce them, and we try to keep the nasties in check as much as we can. It's complicated though. There are factions. Things get out of balance sometimes. Some don't want a peaceful coexistence, they feel it is their right to live according to their basic nature, even if that means killing. The last time those factions got out of hand, well....” Masha gestured around to her somewhat battered audience. “It was ugly. People died, some supernatural lines went extinct. Most of the fairy tales that you hear come from that time period.”

Shannon had thought that if only Jared would wake up and start talking again this nightmare might be over. Sure, they'd have to find a blood supply and there would be secrets to keep, but they would figure it out, get back to their lives. He realized now that nothing was going to be going back to normal. They were deep in the fire now and the flames were only going to be getting higher.

 

 

 

 


	4. Chapter 4

“So which side did we land on?” Shannon asked carefully.

Masha regarded him again. There was so much in that simple statement and the calm way in which he had asked it. We. He understood he was in this now too and his role, to some degree, had already been set. He was choosing to play the hand he had. Masha admired that survivor's spirit. Shannon seemed to have a lot of different dimensions. Masha was becoming increasingly more fond of all of them. “The one that doesn't want to make enemies of the humans again,” she started by way of explanation. “Very simply, the main authority for the supernatural community is an organization called the Tratat. It means pact or treaty and refers to the agreement set in place to hide our community and blend in with the human world. Their main enforcement branch is Manus or The Hand. If you kill a human or reveal us they will be the ones that come for you.” She looked at the brothers sternly. "And you won't like what happens when they catch up with you. And they will catch up with you, there is no escaping them."

Shannon nodded. He had no intention of crossing anyone at this point, he understood how tremendously overpowered he was. “What about other things?” he asked. “Who's going to be getting involved in this? Because you said your friends are dead, and that has to be against some kind of law or rule or whatever, right?”

Masha sighed. This one had a way of getting right to the heart of the matter quickly. “That's where it gets a lot more complicated.”

Silas put his glasses down and went to check on Davrosh, who had finished drinking and was lying unconscious and still the way Jared had at the motel. Jared was still sitting at the end of the sofa but was now paying rapt attention to the conversation. Silas picked up the explanations.

“We are allowed some degree of autonomy within our individual communities. We are mostly expected to police our own, to handle things before Manus has to step in. Manus being called in is not considered a good thing and most communities go to some length to avoid that. We are responsible for resolving any internal conflicts, delivering small scale justice in whatever manner we choose as long as we are following the rules of the Tratat. Of course, there are things that fall outside of all of those lines, things that do not fall under the authority of either the individual communities or Manus. Things that are too messy for them to dirty their hands with. Forgive the pun.” Silas gave a little chuckle but everyone else maintained their serious expressions. “Fighting between species, larger movements to disrupt The Tratat, that sort of thing. Those things require a special touch, a sort of supernatural special ops team if you will. The Subterra.”

Masha gave Shannon and Jared a wry smile. “Welcome to the Underground.”

Shannon exhaled slowly and tried to digest what they had told him. He and Jared had really landed right in the thick of it, and all the answers they were giving him just brought up more questions. He wanted to know more about Subterra and how that all worked, but he still didn't know who he was in the room with. “Okay. I have more questions about that but you still haven't answered my first question,” he asked, turning to Silas. “Are you a vampire too? Are you moroi?”

“He is.” It was Jared that answered, to Shannon's surprise. “He's the same as her and me and Davrosh.”

“Well done,” Masha said appreciatively. He had been very quiet up until now but Jared seemed to be getting the hang of his new sense fairly quickly. Masha wanted to test how far that went, but first, he needed to know he was with family. “We are the same on several different levels. Once you meet some other moroi you'll understand.” She gestured to Davrosh. “Tell me what you can about him.”

“He's the same as us but.. more?” Jared speculated. “I mean he feels like he is more moroi or something. If that's possible. And he's very old.”

Masha tried not to smile. “How do you know he's old?”

“I don't know exactly. He just feels very... well... old. I didn't know that was a feeling before but it seems to be now. Just like hot or cold or hard.” Jared tried his best to explain but there were so many things happening in his head that he didn't have words for yet. So much of it was instinct, like knowing the odd way that the vampire stretched out next to him felt meant that he was older than the rest of them combined. It simply was. He knew he wasn't articulating himself well yet, however, Masha seemed to understand, seemed satisfied with his explanation.

“That's really good. I'm surprised you're able to identify that feeling already. It will get easier, I promise.” She looked over at Silas.

“I spent the first week after my transformation more or less curled into a ball in a dark room. It was particularly bad for me,” he confessed.

Masha continued. “Some people transition faster than others. I don't think I've seen anyone pick it up quite as quickly as you before though. There are actual lines of humans back in the old country who have been specifically chosen to become moroi. Certain families choose the third born of each generation. They end up becoming some of the strongest and most exceptional among us. I've never seen one of them go through the transformation but it is said they do so very quickly. Davrosh was one of them. His blood is particularly strong. That's one part of that “more” feeling you mentioned. But the other reason, the reason we feel the same to you and Davrosh reads a little stronger, is not just because we are all vampires, or moroi, but also because we are family. You are my child. Silas and I are Davrosh's children.”

Jared took a moment to digest this as he watched the mostly still form on the sofa next to him. “So he is my grandfather?”

“Yes,” Silas answered. “You're very lucky actually. We belong to one of the oldest and most respected moroi houses. That's important in ways that we'll get around to explaining later when things are calmer. We are generally very particular about who we choose to join us.” This remark came with a significant look at Masha. Masha didn't back down, however. She was already growing quite fond of her newborn. She was convinced that destiny was in play here, somehow. Silas continued. “For now you just need to know that we are family. There is a bond between us that you will begin to feel more in the next few days. You probably already feel it towards Masha.”

Jared remembered the powerful feeling that overcame him at the motel, the one that had driven him to open the door before he even knew what was on the other side. “Yes, I felt her before I even knew who she was,” he confirmed.

Masha turned her attention back to Shannon, who was quiet now that he seemed to be getting the answers he was craving. She wanted to say something reassuring to him, she thought he probably felt pretty left out of all this, but Jared had more questions.

“What are they?” Jared asked, pointing at the two girls who were curled up together on the other worn sofa in the room. The younger of the two was lying with her head in her older sister's lap and looked as if she were about to fall asleep. They must be exhausted, Masha thought. “I can tell that we moroi are the same, and I can tell that Shannon is different, I guess that's what human smells like?” Masha nodded. “But they,” he nodded to the sisters and the sleeping hexe, “aren't either of those things. Are they?”

“Very good. And you noticed the callers at the motel weren't human either. You seem to be getting the hang of this very quickly.” Masha gave him what she hoped was a reassuring smile. “Let's see how much you're picking up. Tell me what you can about the occupants of this room.”

Jared stilled himself as much as possible and concentrated on the cacophony of sensations he was experiencing. The difficult part wasn't in getting enough information, it was in sorting through the chaos of impressions to understand what each thing meant and what it was attached to. Being a vampire was so far not at all what he would have expected. “You, Silas and I, the moroi... we don't have heartbeats, although there is a weird sloshing kind of sound. We don't have scents either.”

“Good,” Silas remarked. He too was taken with how quickly this man was adapting. 'That's really good. That sloshing is our approximation of a heartbeat, by the way. Other kinds of vampires sound like that too. What else?”

Other kinds of vampires? Jared thought. He tried not to get to distracted by that phrase and went back to trying to comply with Masha's request. Turning his head towards Shannon, he realized his brother was watching him with naked fascination. His whole life, Shannon had been there for him, a constant in an unpredictable world. They always had each other's backs, and Jared had assumed that would always continue. He wasn't so sure now. This was a lot for Shannon to bear, even if he seemed to be holding up okay now. Jared regarded him more carefully. He couldn't pick out anything that might have told him what Shannon was thinking, but there was a great deal of other sensory information there. Jared began listing those impressions. “Shannon is human of course, so I see what that feels like. He has a heartbeat that is extremely loud, louder than those girls, and he smells like.. “ Jared stopped himself. He didn't think Shannon wanted to hear this. He didn't think he wanted Shannon to hear him say it either.

Masha knew why he was censoring himself. “Go on. He should know. Things are changed between you now and you both need to accept the reality of it. Denial is dangerous.”

Jared looked away from his brother, a sour taste rising in his mouth. He had to believe that Shannon would stand by him the way he always had. He swallowed before continuing. “Meat. He smells like steak, like blood, like red if it had a smell. There are other smells too, the soap he used, the chips he was eating last night, the alcohol he drank before the show, his sweat... but mostly he just smells like ….” Jared couldn't continue, couldn't make himself say it.

“... dinner.” Silas finished for him. “You can say it. You're not going to drink him but he smells like you should.”

“Yes.” He continued to avoid looking Shannon in the eye and turned his attention to the hexe lying in the chair. “She feels a lot like Shannon does, but her heart is quieter and she doesn't smell as... tasty. It's almost like a human, but....” He struggled to articulate the difference. “It's kind of like a feeling of size, an overall presence. Like Shannon is the smallest, smaller than everyone else. She is a little bigger, and we moroi are too, as if we are expanded a little past our bodies, but Shannon is just Shannon.” Masha nodded again, letting Jared know he was correct. He pointed at the sisters. “They are huge.”

“Yes, they are,” Masha said approvingly. Even though she hadn't really chosen Jared out of anything other than blind circumstance and hadn't even begun to instruct him, she felt a surge of pride in how naturally he seemed to take to his new awareness. He was going to be extraordinary, she was sure, and it would be a pleasure to train him. Masha was starting to feel a little bit better about her impulsive decision, and more convinced by the minute that destiny had led them all here. “Continue, you're doing great.”

Jared nodded and examined the girls carefully. “They have heart beats too, of course. Quieter than Shannon's and the other girl, and faster.” Jared closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, trying to analyze the scents that were reaching him. “They smell like the woods. Kind of.”

“Wow.” It was Silas's turn to express awe. He was well aware of how long it had taken him to gain the level of competence that less-than-a-day-old Jared seemed to be displaying. He was impressed and a little jealous. He tried to guide Jared a little deeper. “Okay, take that apart, break it down. What do you mean kind of?”

Jared thought for a moment. It was more than just the smell, it was something in that awareness, like extra information on the back of a page that he couldn't quite read. “There is a smell that is like the green things in a forest, like trees and leaves and moss. I guess I'm identifying that because it's familiar but it's not the strongest impression. There's something different in it...” he trailed off, searching for the words he needed. “It's the dirt smell. It's not like a regular dirt smell. Not like they've gotten dirty walking in the woods. It's more...” he ran his hands over his face. He knew that dirt smelled like dirt, that the part he was struggling with here wasn't the scent itself but the extra perceptions that were associated with it. He tried to let go of his concrete impressions and pick out the little notes in the ether that held the information he sought. “It smells like the things on the forest floor, like old leaves... no... rotting leaves... like decay... like...” There was a sharp intake of breath as the information all connected. “Death. Like a grave.” Jared looked to the other moroi in confusion. “But they're not dead. I'm sure they're not, although I don't know why. Why do they smell like death?”

“They are not dead, true,” Masha explained, “but they are among its forces. Notice, we are dead, but we have no smell. They are not dead but are tied intimately to its workings and they reek of the grave. Scent for us is about much more than chemical compounds released into the air. Notice with your brother, who is alive and human and mortal, you also smelled all the other things – soap, food, sweat, all the things that he encounters and that imprint on him. There's a smell there of anger too but it's subtle and receding, and that's a bit much for you to process yet.”

Jared wondered if the anger was from Shannon's meltdown over Masha's reluctance to explain what was going on, or if it was a reaction to the things Jared was saying. Shannon seemed to be very much in his own head at the moment, and Jared couldn't get a read on him. The extra senses weren't helping with that at all. He turned his attention back to Masha.

“We moroi have encountered all those physical things too, we have emotions too but you'll notice you smell none of it. We are like an empty space, not living but not of the grave either. The world does imprint on us and leaves those things behind but the smell becomes lost. We aren't of any world and nothing of them sticks to us. There is only our presence. The girls, who also of course have come into contact with all these things still only smell largely of their nature. It is also possible to pick up other scent information from them, it is there, but it is more subtle as well, although in their case it is due to the overriding expansion of their nature. In time, however, you will learn to read it.” She paused to make sure Jared had no questions. He made no move to interrupt her so she continued. “For moroi, the sense of smell is very powerful and will come in far more useful than you currently realize. And by the way, you may think moroi have no scent now, but spill our blood and the scent will overpower you. Nothing smells sweeter or more overwhelming than fresh moroi blood.” Satisfied that she had gotten the lesson across, she decided it was time for the reveal. “The girls are banshees."

“Banshees?” Shannon said incredulously. “As in “scream like a”? Like those are real?”

“We told you, fairy tale things are real,” Silas reminded him.

“They wail when someone dies, right? That's why they smell like death?” Silas nodded at Shannon's question. “Oh, that's why you didn't want us to talk to them in the truck! What would have happened if we talked to them?”

“You'd have gotten a headache.” Masha chuckled. “They can't really speak, not to us at any rate. It's all wails and screams to us. Which is why this is such a problem, we can't talk to them and get any information.”

“What's that about anyway? Why do you have them? What happened to your friends? Is the other girl a banshee too? Who came to see us at the motel? Is that Whispers? He's not moroi is he?” Questions Shannon had been holding on to came out like a flood.

Masha sighed. There was of course so much more to cover. She had been so pleased with Jared's display of blossoming skills she had momentarily forgotten how much more there was that needed explaining. “Whoa, slow down. One thing at a time,” she told Shannon. “The other girl is not a banshee, she is a hexe. It literally translates to witch, but hexe are a bit more than that. They are a bloodline of themselves, nearly human but having the ability to work strong magics.” she turned to Jared. “Her heartbeat is quieter and she smells different because she is not food.”

“Why is she asleep?” Jared asked. “It doesn't seem like there's anything wrong with her.”

“I don't know,” Masha confessed. “I've never actually met her before, but Davrosh always uses a hexe when he is working. If he wakes up before she does hopefully he can tell us what's going on. Because right now, I don't have good answers for most of what you're asking. As for what happened at the warehouse...Well, we can't be sure about that until the girl or Davrosh wake up but we've been working to break up a ring of strigoi who are bringing in other supernatural creatures to feed on.”

Just when Shannon thought he had an understanding of the situation more information came in. He was struggling to keep his emotions in check. He looked at Jared but Jared had been avoiding eye contact ever since referring to him as “meat”. “Okay, I'll ask if he's not going to,” he said, breaking the brief silence. “What is a strigoi?”

“Another kind of vampire.” Silas always seemed to take over the lecturing when it turned academic. Shannon thought he looked a lot like a librarian so it seemed natural. “There are actually five different kinds of vampires, with different traits. That's why you see such differing accounts of vampires and what their powers are. I'm not going to describe them all now but Strigoi are more like traditional vampires that moroi are. They can't be out in sunlight, can't go into places where they are not invited, and can survive off of any kind of blood. They are also part of one of the factions we mentioned earlier, the ones that think that they shouldn't have to live by the rules of the Tratat.”

Masha took over the discussion. “Whispers is the head of the local pack of strigoi. He is running a black market of supernatural creatures to be sold to other strigoi like exotic food.” She gestured to the young banshees who had fallen asleep on the sofa. “They were meant to be someone's fancy dinner.”

 


	5. Chapter 5

“Wait,” asked Jared, “so the moroi can only drink human blood but they are fine with getting along without hurting humans, but the vampires that can drink anything, they're the ones that have to be assholes about it?”

“I know it seems counter intuitive,” Masha replied, “but it also means that they have less to lose. If humans become aware of vampires and actively start fighting us, or if humans become scarce, strigoi can just find something else to live off vulnerable. We don't exactly have that option.”

“Speaking of dinner,” Silas interrupted, wanting to change the conversation before they were any more uncomfortable references to humans as herd animals, “I wonder when was the last time those girls ate? They look dirty and exhausted. We should probably feed them and get them cleaned up and to bed before we have to contend with Whispers again.” He looked over at Shannon. “He's probably tired and hungry too.”

Shannon sighed. They had gone right back to talking about him in the third person again, but he had to admit as the adrenaline wore off once more, he was realizing he was starving. He had gotten a bag of chips out of the vending machine at the motel last night but hadn't had a decent meal since a late lunch before their show yesterday afternoon. Although he wasn't feeling particularly tired now, that was probably more nerves than anything. He hadn't slept well the night before and it looked like there was another long night coming. It might be a good idea to try to rest if Masha and Silas thought it was safe. Maybe a full stomach would help him relax. “I could use something to eat,” Shannon confirmed.

Silas reached into the desk drawer and pulled out a key, which he tossed to Masha. “I know the area and no one is looking for me so I'll go out for food. It's not like I keep anything here. Take them inside and let them get cleaned up. I shouldn't be long.” He had grabbed a can of spray sunscreen and sprayed down what small amount of his skin was exposed while he was talking. He now donned a hat and jacket. “There's plenty of room in the fridge for your blood, better put it away before it starts to go bad," he added, exiting back through the door to the loading bay where they were parked.

Masha picked up Davrosh and gestured for Jared to pick up the unconscious hexe. “Can you get the little sleeping one?” she asked Shannon, gesturing to the young banshees.

Shannon gently scooped up the young girl from her spot on the sofa, her long auburn lashes fluttering as if she were dreaming. He hoped it was a good dream. She'd already had enough terror for one day, he was sure, supernatural being or not. Briefly, he wondered what childhood was like for a banshee. Once he had her in his arms her older sister moved to his side, dutifully following along as they made their way further into the interior of the old store. The girls seemed to understand their speech, even if they were unable to join in the conversation, and they seemed calmer since arriving at Silas's. Shannon hoped that meant they understood everyone was here to help them.

The interior of the store had been converted so that it looked almost like a regular apartment, albeit with rather eclectic furnishings. The large open area that seemed to serve as a living room was filled with mismatched sofas and chairs in various states of shabbiness. There were old rugs covering the concrete floor and a collection of lamps and tables that made the whole place look like a thrift store showroom. Perhaps it had been when Silas's had acquired it, Shannon thought. He followed Masha past a divider to find another series of rooms, and as soon as they discovered one with a bed, Masha placed Davrosh there carefully before instructing Jared to lay the sleeping hexe down next to him. As soon as the girl's hand brushed against Davrosh's she awoke with a startled gasp, scrambling away from Jared and patting her pockets for something that didn't seem to be there.

“Who are you?” she demanded, looking wildly around the room. She spotted the youngest girl in Shannon's arms. “Don't you hurt her!” she shouted while gesturing to the older girl. “Keera, get behind me!”

“It's okay,” Jared said, holding his hands in front of him as he moved back to give her a little space. “We're here to help.”

“I'm Masha,” Masha interjected, trying to assume a non-threatening posture herself. “Davrosh should have mentioned me. I was supposed to be at the meeting tonight but I let's.”

The young woman regarded Masha carefully before looking at Davrosh, unconscious on the bed, still in his bloodied clothing. “If you're Masha, then you're...”

“Davrosh's child and a member of the Underground. You're safe. Well, as safe as you can be under the circumstances. Are you all right? I couldn't tell why you were unconscious. Are you injured?”

The young woman considered the group surrounding her for a minute before seeming to decide that they were who they said they were. “No, I am fine. It was a spell to make me less detectable from the people that were hunting us. It was meant to be broken by Davrosh's touch.” She looked at the recuperating vampire. “It would have worn off eventually if he hadn't come for me. I'm Klara, by the way,” she said, her voice tinged with a slight German accent. She moved to the girls while giving Jared a wide berth, taking the younger banshee, who had awoken during the small commotion, from Shannon's arms. “Who's the human?” she asked. “Is he a Whitehat?”

“That will take some explaining,” Masha said. “First, what happened?”

“Not in front of the girls,” Klara replied, shaking her head. “They've been through enough. They don't need to relive it.”

Jared helped Klara find another bedroom while Masha located the bathroom and started filling the old claw tub with some warm water. Shannon brought the girls into the bathroom with Masha so that she could get them cleaned up while Klara prepared a bed for them. Klara eventually joined Masha in the bathroom and Shannon followed Jared into the kitchen, where he stored the remaining blood, leaving a bag out for himself. Jared ripped the corner of the bag open with his teeth but turned his back to Shannon before taking a drink.

“Like I didn't feed you like ten of those last night,” Shannon said. Jared wiped his mouth before turning around.

“I don't remember,” he confessed. “I don't remember anything after the scaffolding starting to come apart until I was staring at the door in the motel room, trying to figure out why I felt something on the other side.” He considered the blood in his hand before taking another drink, watching Shannon carefully for a reaction, but his face remained neutral. “Thank you for taking care of me.”

“I'm your big brother. It's what I do,” Shannon reminded him. He sat down on the chrome and vinyl upholstered kitchen chair. “We've got quite a mess waiting for us though. There's going to be a lot of questions and I can't handle it all on my own.”

“I'll take care of it,” Jared said. He was a bit better at handling those sorts of thing anyway. His brother nodded, relieved to finally have some help.

“Are you okay now?” Shannon asked hesitatingly.

Jared gave him a small shrug. “I'm better than I was earlier. It's all so fucking strange though. You can't imagine.” Jared wished immediately that he hadn't said it quite like that. He could see how left out Shannon felt right now. “I don't know what I would have done without you,” he added, hoping that would salve things over a bit.

They sat in the small kitchen in silence, waiting for the women to be done with their tasks or for Silas to return. There was a lot to digest and even more questions that still needed to be answered. Hopefully, there would be time for all that once whatever was happening had been settled.

Silas returned first, bags of groceries on his arms. He sat some milk, apple juice, and cereal on the table before putting away cans of soup, crackers, bananas, and cookies. He was taking bowls and cups out of a cupboard when Masha and Klara appeared with the banshees. Their hair was damp and they were dressed in oversized t-shirts that Klara must have found in one of the bedrooms, but they no longer had the warehouse dirt smudging their faces and arms. They looked like perfectly ordinary little girls, getting ready for bed. Shannon showed them the cereal.

“Frosted Flakes or Fruit Loops?” he asked, holding the boxes out for them. Both girls chose Frosted Flakes, and Shannon poured the cereal into the bowls that Silas had set down in front of them. Silas added the milk while Jared poured out glasses of juice. Once the girls were situated Shannon made a big bowl of Fruit Loops for himself.

Klara poured herself some juice but passed on the cereal, then scooted up to sit on the kitchen counter, away from the cluster of vampires at the table. “The younger one is Keera, and her sister is Addy, by the way,” she told them. “Addy can write out answers to your questions.” Masha groaned, embarrassed she hadn't thought of that. “They were taken when they were out playing with their older sister. They think that whoever snatched them killed her.”

Jared looked her over carefully. She seemed to be staying as distant from him as possible, scrambling away from him in the bedroom and choosing the farthest point away from him in whatever room they ended up in. He didn't know why. For his part he was fascinated with her, all sorts of information rolling off of her that was a complete mystery to him, even stronger now that she was finally awake. He wondered if that was what magic looked and felt like, if other hexe would seem as interesting as her. He doubted it. As fascinated as he was with all these ethereal impressions, he was as equally enchanted with her more concrete features, like her delicate hands that resolved into long slender fingers tipped in chipped black nail polish. They were currently wrapped around her juice glass but he thought they would look equally at home at a piano, perhaps playing some Chopin. He somehow doubted, however, that she enjoyed Chopin, she looked like she preferred something harder, edgier, something like the worn Black Flag concert tee she wore suggested. He continued to consider her carefully, taking in the way the air around her seemed to bend and shimmer, her dark blue-green eyes rimmed in kohl and her ripped jeans neatly folded over the top of a pair of worn combat boots. In spite of all that, he couldn't shake the mental image of her coaxing a Nocturne out of a worn piano, eyes closed as she lost herself to the music. He wondered if it was an accurate impression, was he maybe seeing an inner version of herself, did his abilities work like that? There was so much going on with his senses now he was starting to wonder what was real anymore. Klara didn't fail to notice his intense gaze.

“Teach your child some manners,” she told Masha, belting back the last of her juice and hopping back to the floor. “I'm not here for his entertainment,” she added before stalking back into the living room. Masha looked disapprovingly at Jared and he dropped his eyes to the floor, trying to avoid getting into any more trouble. He hadn't realized he'd been so obvious, he had been too lost in the details of the mysterious hexe to think about his behavior. Besides, girls usually liked it when he paid them attention, he wasn't used to hiding it. He'd have to be more careful around Klara in the future.

Once the girls were fed and had been put to bed, the adults congregated in the living room for an update from Klara. She explained that Jakob and Astrid, two of the other members of the cell, had been on a reconnaissance mission, staking out a shipping facility that they believed Whispers's operation had been using to bring in their victims. They were supposed to be bringing that intel to the meeting that Masha had missed. While on their stake out, several crates had arrived unexpectedly by truck, the driver purporting that they were a gift to Whispers from someone named Vincent. The banshees were inside one crate, the other contained a trio of spriggan. (Shannon and Jared both wanted to ask what a spriggan was but knew better than to interrupt.) The spriggan had apparently gotten loose from their chains during their time in the crate, and once it was open they had pounced. They made quick work of both the delivery driver and the personnel at the warehouse and had then bounded off into the night. Jakob and Astrid had collected the banshees and taken them with them to the warehouse meeting, assuming Davrosh would know what to do with them. While he was checking the girls over Michael, another member of the cell had contacted the Council for instructions and was told to wait where they were. While they were discussing what further action they could take, Whispers and his minions had located the warehouse. Klara was able to put up a few quick protection spells but didn't have the time or supplies for anything powerful enough to keep them out for long. Instead, Davrosh had ordered her to hide in the small cellar with the girls, where she put up a ward to mask the room and put herself into a sort of sleep so that her presence could go undetected as well. She, of course, didn't know what happened after that. Masha filled in the blanks that she knew. Jared noticed the cloud that passed over her face when Masha told her about Riva and Metz. He wondered how close they had been.

“They must have been sold out,” Silas observed darkly.

“It could just be a coincidence,” Masha argued, but in her heart, she was also sure Davrosh had been betrayed.

“Masha...” Silas sounded as if he were about to reprimand Masha but she put up her hand, shaking her head sadly. “I know Silas. I just don't know what to do. It could have been whoever answered at the Council, or it could have been Michael himself. It means we're on our own though. We can't call this in, we don't know who has been compromised.”

Silas nodded solemnly. “Well, we're relatively safe here. This is a residence so they can't just barge in like they did at the warehouse. There are a few people I trust I can call, but we're going to need a plan. We still have to take care of Riva and Metz's remains. We're also going to have to figure out who those girls belong to and get them out of town as quickly as possible. At any rate, it's more than we can handle in the nine hours we have until sunset, so we're going to have to ride out at least one night here.” He turned to Klara. “Can you put up some wards? Maybe something that will help keep them from detecting us?”

“I don't have any supplies,” she told him.

“I should have everything you need.” He got up from his chair. “Come on I'll show you.” He turned and gestured to Jared as well. “You come too, let's continue your education.”

They headed down the hallway, leaving Masha and Shannon sitting on the particularly threadbare red sofa. Masha sighed, letting her face fall into her hands as the enormity of the situation started to sink in. They were truly on their own, at least for the time being, deep in enemy territory, with vulnerable charges to protect. At least she now knew that her being late to the meeting hadn't caused the deaths of her friends. Had she been there she would probably have been dead too. At least now she was able to help Davrosh. Assuming he woke up, that is.

She felt a hand on her thigh and lifted her head from her hands to see Shannon looking on with concern. She had saved Jared out of necessity, pure circumstance putting her at that concert at that moment, but for the first time, she realized she hadn't saved Jared for his own sake. She had saved him for Shannon. It was his love and his heartbreak that had moved her to break her own rules, to risk discovery and punishment at the hands of the Tretat. She thought of the way he knelt over his dying brother, the way he had carried the sleeping banshee girl so carefully, the smile on his face as he got the girls to eat their bowls of cereal. She also thought of the way he had thrown that mug against the wall, the way he had stood up to her in the motel. There was fierceness hiding under all that sweetness. When this was over she intended to discover all of it.

“I know it seems enormous but we can't give up,” he told her. “I won't. Tell me what I need to know to fight this.”

He looked at her so expectantly, and with such deep resolve, and Masha was suddenly overcome with the need to ground herself, to connect to something real. She reached over to him, knotting her fingers in the hair at the back of his head as she brought their mouths together. He opened his lips to her immediately, his tongue dancing against hers as he sought that same grounding connection. Masha hadn't kissed a human in decades, but Shannon was becoming harder and harder for her to resist. He was so warm and sweet, blood loudly thrumming through his veins as it redirected itself lower. She climbed over onto him, opening her legs to straddle him as her pale blonde hair fell across his face.

“I did it for you, you know,” she confessed in a whisper, lips brushing against his cheek before diving back in for another hungry taste of him. Shannon wrapped his arms around her, pulling her against him.

“Thank you. Thank you for giving me my brother back,” he told her, breaking the kiss, his hazel eyes locked with Masha's own gray ones. "I owe you everything."

"Just survive," she told him mysteriously. "That's what I need. For both of you to survive."

 

 

 

 


	6. Chapter 6

Silas pulled a key from his pocket as he led them through the odd configuration of dividers that turned the large former showroom space into a collection of smaller rooms. Eventually, they came to another self-contained room, similar to the office they had originally assembled in, thick metal walls interrupted only by a peeling gray door which Silas promptly unlocked. Inside was a room that looked like an arcane lab, with several long, heavy, wooden tables and shelves full of boxes and bottles and plastic bins overflowing with things Jared couldn't begin to identify. He thought it was sort of Hogwarts meets The Container Store. He chuckled to himself but then Klara gave him a disapproving look and he stopped.

“I should have anything you need in here,” Silas told her, pulling a few boxes from the shelf. “Feel free to help yourself to whatever you wish.”

Klara strolled in front of the shelves, trailing her fingers along the front of the bottles and jars. She hummed and wove her head from side to side, seeming to divine the contents of the collection rather than reading the labels. Jared watched her with the same fascination as before, noticing that the air around her seemed even more charged in here than it had been in the kitchen. She made a selection of items and then set them on the table.

“I need some things that are not here,” she said to Silas as she began arranging the items she had gathered on one of the tables. One was a bottle of thick opaque liquid that was a shocking shade of fuchsia. Jared reached over to examine it further and Klara smacked his hand without even looking at him. He sighed and hopped up onto the unused table, dangling his long thin legs off the side.

“Make me a list. I need to call in some help to deal with the bodies and I can have someone bring whatever else you need,” Silas told her, pulling a pen and some paper out of a small cabinet. “I've got a few grimoires you might find interesting as well. Let me fetch them for you,” he offered, tucking his hair behind his ear again before slipping out of the door. This left Klara and Jared alone, much to Klara's chagrin. She glowered at Jared, hoping to discourage any further meddling in her work but he just gave her what he thought was a charming smile. She turned her back.

 

“ _This is probably not a very good idea,” Shannon said as Masha closed the door behind them. They had walked hand in hand through the labyrinthine space of Silas's makeshift home until they had emerged on the other side, finding what appeared to be an old storage room full of boxes, more worn furniture and, fortuitously, several beds. Masha pressed her own delicately drawn lips against Shannon's full ones, taking in another drink of his sweet warmth before answering._

“ _Maybe. Does it really matter? There's nothing we can do right now, we're safer staying put and putting up defenses than dashing without a plan. I'd rather feel connected to something, someone, than stand around uselessly wondering if I'm going to die.” She ran her hand along the side of Shannon's face, letting her fingers trail across his jawline and down his neck. She could feel the blood rushing just beneath its surface. Combined with the heady mix of fear and adrenaline that still lingered in the air, and the musky, syrupy scents of his arousal, the medley left Masha's head swimming._

“ _I need this,” she said, drawing her hands down his muscular chest, taking in deep breaths of him that made her fangs ache deep in their sockets. “And I need you... you're nothing like I've ever encountered before. I don't get involved with humans, not for a very long time, but...” Her eyes fell closed and she bit her bottom lip. How could she explain this ache to him, the complex attraction she was beginning to feel for him when his own awareness was so limited?_

_Shannon slipped his arms around her waist, his powerful hands pressing flat against her back. Masha knew he wanted her, she could smell the pheromones rolling off of him, but she saw the doubt in his eyes. “It doesn't have to mean anything,” she offered hopefully, figuring like most human men he could be easily tempted into an uncomplicated romp with a beautiful woman. “It can, if you want it to but it doesn't have to. It can be anything you want it to be. Just don't say no. Please.”_

_Masha hesitantly teased her tongue along the seam of his mouth, and she could feel him relaxing, feel him giving in. “Please...” she whispered against his lips, and he finally seemed to make his decision, tightening his grip on Masha and opening his mouth to hers with a groan. As their tongues curled and danced together she began pulling their clothing loose, feverishly trying to reach bare skin. He stumbled backward, pulling her with him until they fell onto one of the beds, a sigh of stale dusty air rising up around them._

_Shannon pinned Masha underneath him, his knees coming to rest on either side of her hips while his teeth found the supple skin of her throat, skin which had no taste on his tongue but caused his mouth to water as if he were devouring richly spiced delicacies. He wondered if she had some sort of special ability to mesmerize him, had she taken him in with some supernatural powers of seduction? Was that why, when he should have been terrified, exhausted, trying to get some sleep and praying he made it through the next 24 hours, all he could think about was Masha and her stormy gray eyes?_

_He grabbed her wrists and pressed her arms against the bed, knowing she could easily push him away, grateful when she didn't. She just offered herself to him in a symphony of soft whispers and sighs, his name a breathy incantation amongst it all. He remembered reading a vampire novel, remembered the term thrall and in that moment his understanding deepened. Even when he closed his eyes she was there now, flooding him with impressions he didn't have the awareness to process, memories of their short time together replaying over and over. He was digesting all of it, the sensory and the emotional, building a map of her that was far more complex than it should have been for someone he had known for so brief a time. It was all there, her delicate hands, the almost impossibly graceful way she moved, the arrogance, the sarcasm... and the gentle way she had looked at him even when everything was falling apart. She projected strong, harsh, practical, but she had spent her day gathering strays and saving lives while putting her own on the line to do it. Shannon was indeed enthralled by her, in awe of her. He was surprised when she kissed him, and was growing more surprised every second things progressed. He had thought it was Jared that caught her eye. It was always Jared. But he was seeing now that he and Masha were the ones who had connected in that moment at the festival. They were connecting now._

_He released her hand and let his mouth wander over her oddly smooth skin, trailing hungry kisses towards her pale breasts while she tugged at his hair and whimpered. He was fascinated with the way her chest heaved, did she really even need to breathe at all? There as no forgetting what she was, the coolness of her skin and almost supernatural euphoria he felt as more and more of their bodies touched made that impossible, but he didn't need to forget. He was reveling in her strangeness._

_Shannon moved down her body, finding the pebbled flesh of her nipples and he swirled his tongue over the closest one, watching in fascination as more goosebumps appeared on the skin surrounding it. He hoped he'd have another chance soon to be with her, to take some time discovering her. Her body and its responses were a mystery to him, one he was growing increasingly compelled to unravel._

_Masha shifted underneath him then, unexpectedly rolling him onto his back and settling over him with a ravenous growl that sent something buried in the deepest reaches of his brain scrambling for cover. He ignored his fear response, instead giving himself over to his desire for her, pushing his hips against her as she worked her mouth down his body. When her teeth scraped across the vulnerable swell of his lower stomach he moaned and grasped for her hair, no longer caring that she was a predator in a beautiful skin. No, that wasn't entirely true. He did care. He wanted more than that scrape of her teeth, he wanted her fangs, wanted to feel what it was like to be devoured like that. He was ready to let her consume him._

 

 

“So what is that?” Jared asked as Klara poured something into a large bowl she had found on the shelves.

“Salt,” she replied flatly, her focus never leaving the bowl.

“Like just plain old salt? Like I could put in on my french fries?”

Klara looked over at him with a sigh. He was swinging his legs back and forth while he watched her, his hand tapping out a rhythm on the table edge. He seemed completely incapable of being still or observing quietly. She looked him up and down again, trying to find some way to soften her assessment. He seemed to mean well, and he was certainly enjoyable to look at. Klara couldn't quite stop herself from noticing the way those brilliant blue eyes of his stood out against his dark hair. But he was a vampire, she reminded herself, and worse he was moroi, and a Vaduva at that. He may not know what that meant now, but she did, and soon he would too and he would be as pompous and stuck up as the rest of them.

When she closed up the salt container and opened a long plastic bin full of clumpy black roots Jared hopped off the table, coming to stand next to her and look over her work. Klara gritted her teeth.

“And what's that?” he asked her as she crumbled some into the large bowl.

“High John the Conqueror.”

Jared looked puzzled. “It's a person?”

Klara rolled her eyes at him. “Yes, it's a person. Silas keeps clumps of people in plastic bins in his back room,” she answered sarcastically. “It's a root. It's very powerful.”

Jared looked at the knot of dark roots carefully, expecting to see something that hinted at their importance but they mostly just looked like dried up bits of plants. They did have an earthy smell, one of decay, but other than that they could have been anything. He picked one up to examine it more closely and again Klara smacked his hand.

“Don't touch things you don't understand. That's a very bad habit.” She said, taking the remaining root from him and putting it away. The next thing she opened was also full of plants, dried leafy ones that instead of adding to the bowl she put in the small marble mortar she had laid out.

“And what's this one?” Jared asked.

“Mugwort.”

Jared watched her grinding it with the pestle for a minute before he started poking through the remain items on the table, again coming back to the strange fuchsia liquid.

“What is this?” he asked.

“Do not touch that,” Klara scolded. “It's very powerful and very difficult to obtain. Anything else about it does not concern you.”

Jared knitted his brow at her, puzzled by her constant irritation with him. “Silas said I was supposed to be continuing my education. I just thought...”

“If Silas wants you to continue your education then he can come back here and educate you,” she countered. “I am not here for you. I am not your babysitter.”

Jared walked around to the other side of the table, completely ignoring Klara's growing impatience. He picked up a box with a single, tiny insect in it. It had a small slender silver body but proportionately enormous rounded wings that were covered in a sort of iridescent green and blue webbing. “Wow, what on earth is this?” he asked as he carefully turned the box around, examining its occupant.

Klara threw the pestle down, realizing she had lost track of the number of times she had ground the mugwort and was now going to have to throw the whole thing out and start over. _“Heilige Mutter Gottes, bist du fünf? Verdammt. Es ist_ als _hätte ich_ ein verschissenes _Kleinkind. Du_ machst _mich_ krank mit deinem _Gehampel und_ kannst _du_ vielleicht _für_ eine _Sekunde_ irgendwas anderes anstarren _? Ich bin_ kein gottverdammtes _Museum. Beherrsch_ dich _gefälligst und_ kleb _mir_ nicht _so am Arsch."_ She was practically shaking by the end of her tirade but it felt good to get it out. Jared of course, not understanding a word, just blinked at her and sat the faeryefly down. She glared at him and tried to think of a dressing down in English that might put him in his place when Silas finally walked back into the room, carrying three thick, old and dusty volumes.

”Here we are,“ he said with a smile, sitting the books down on the empty table, oblivious to the tension in the room. ”I think you'll find these quite interesting. That one,” he said, indicating a green-bound volume in front of Jared, “should be particularly helpful. Do you read Romanian?” Klara nodded. “There are some spells in there that were used to protect villages during the Draugr Uprising. I think you'll find they're quite effective.”

Jared opened the book and started leafing through its aged pages. He couldn't understand the text but there were lots of pictures of plants and symbols. There were also some worrying stains on the heavy pages and illustrations that looked suspiciously like instructions for how to dismember a person. He realized he was going to need to learn some other languages, for real, not just enough words to order food and pick up girls. Then again, he figured he had all the time he needed now.

Silas picked up the piece of paper that Klara had laid out for him with her list of missing ingredients. “I need to make those phone calls, and I'll have these things brought by. I can lend you a hand when I'm done.” He looked affably between Jared and Klara, and Jared sensed that being among the old tomes and dusty shelves was Silas's preferred element. “I'll leave you two to it then,” Silas told them before once again excusing himself.

As soon as Silas was out of the room Klara reached over in front of Jared and slammed the book closed.

“What is your problem with me?” Jared demanded, starting to lose patience with her. “I haven't done anything to you as far as I know.”

“You're a vampire,” Klara told him, continuing to work with bottles and boxes in front of her. “You wouldn't have to do anything else but you're also moroi, and a Vaduva. You're pretty much the entitled asshole trifecta.”

“I don't know what that means,” Jared said, moving across the table from her and poking through the boxes. “You know I'm not even a whole day old right?” he asked her.

“I can tell that you're a newborn, yes,” she confirmed. She looked at him as he continued to play with her things, putting his hands on anything he pleased. “And you keep touching everything like an infant. You have to be watched every second and you seem to think it is my job to keep you entertained.” She began setting out small glass bottles in a line. “You think everything and everyone are here for you. It looks like you're developing right on track to me.”

Embarrassed, Jared set down the jar of small blossoms he had picked up. “I'm sorry. I'm just curious. This obviously all new to me.” He looked at Klara, hoping perhaps that his apology might soften her frown a bit, but there was no change in her demeanor. “What's a Vaduva?”

“Oh good, more questions,” Klara muttered as she placed a funnel in the top of the first bottle and began filling it with the concoction she had been mixing. “Although I suppose I have myself to blame for this one. You are a Vaduva. So is Masha and Silas and Davrosh. That is your house, your family name.”

Vaduva. Jared turned the word over in his head. He had a new family now, a house, whatever that meant. “Are they evil or something? Is this like a dark wizards thing? I mean why don't you like them? Us.”

Klara groaned. “I see someone's seen Harry Potter. No, there are no dark wizards, no sorting hats, this doesn't work like that.” She grabbed an armful of glass stoppers and set them down on the table. “Since Masha can't be bothered to instruct you I will try to explain. The Moroi are one of The Three... the three original races that set out the Tretat. They did explain that to you, right?” Jared nodded and Klara continued. “They still sit at the head of the council, and for no other reason than they were the first ones to do so. The Vaduva family goes back to the time of the original Tretat, and although they did not have a member at the original council they have sat at the head of many. They are a sort of ruling class, but they think are like royalty. You all think you are so special, that you must be right, that you are destined to rule. You don't even stop to wonder what is best for all the other races. Selfish, entitled, spoiled.”

“Then why are you here?” Jared asked.

“Moroi and Vaduva are impossible to avoid altogether. And Subterra isn't all vampires. Plus my family owes a debt to your house.” She motioned at the stoppers she had laid on the table. “There. Be useful and stop playing. Put lids on those.”

Jared started the task she has assigned him but he was uneasy with her assumptions. “I'm not like that you know,” he said quietly without looking up at her. The distasteful looks she was giving him cut him deeper than he cared to admit.

“You will be,” was her flat reply.

 

 

_Shannon pushed Masha backward until he was able to pin her beneath him again. His appetite was fierce now, something red and pounding in his head which demanded that he taste her. He grabbed the waistband of her tight black pants and yanked them downwards, peeling the fabric away until it was free of her, the last garment separating them. With a feral growl, he grabbed her thighs and pushed them backward, exposing her sex to him. As he drew his tongue up the wet cleft Masha shuddered, reaching for his hair with a whimper. She responded like any woman, moaning as his tongue circled her throbbing clit, walls grasping eagerly at his fingers as they pierced her depths. He was shocked at the heat of her in contrast to the coolness of her skin, and it wasn't long before his desire to sheath himself in it overcame him._

_He repositioned them one more time, perching himself on one arm while he used his other hand to guide his rigid length into those warm recesses. The creamy pink satin gripped his cock even more tightly than it had his fingers, threatening his control. With a groan he let his head fall her to her chest, his hips circling as she took him in. When he finally began to move again, changing out those tight movements for reckless thrusts, Masha locked her hands at his lower back, anchoring him to her. Again and again, she absorbed his ravenous assault, her nails leaving red trails and wet crescents on his back as she dug into him in return. His appetite consumed him now, no longer a red haze but a faceless beast that demanded not only that he feed but that he be the food itself._

_With a hoarse cry he pulled Masha up against him, leaning back until they were nearly sitting in the middle of the bed. She was in his lap, her slender legs wrapped around his waist as he continued to drive up into her. He knew what he wanted, the beast was screaming in his head now, and he was terrified she wouldn't give it to him._

“ _Taste me,” he groaned, folding her hair behind her and pulling her head against his. “I need you to taste me.”_

“ _Shannon, no...” Her voice was breathy with passion but he could feel her fighting him. He couldn't understand why. His need was so great he felt as if he were going to die if she didn't take his blood from him, shouldn't she feel it too?_

“ _Please,” he implored. There were tears burning at the corners of his eyes, everything was ablaze, smoldering, his skin was cracking from the heat within, his blood boiling and bubbling lava that needed to be turned loose. “I need you take this fire from me. I need to bleed for you.”_

“ _You don't understand.” Masha's voice was a faint and distant whisper. “There are consequences.”_

“ _Please!” he shouted, his fingers desperately grasping her shoulders, his hips never halting in their movement. The beast was choking him now, his vision was going black. He tried to ask again but there wasn't enough air, he couldn't form the words. Instead, he threw his head back and exposed his throat to her, his beast of prey in an angel's skin, and waited for death or desire to consume him. It didn't matter which came first._

_The first scrape of her teeth against his prone flesh made him gasp one giant breath into his scorched lungs, and when her sharp fangs subsequently tore through his fevered skin Shannon finally came apart, trembling, shuddering and emptying himself inside her. Masha had one hand behind his head and the other at his shoulder, steadying him as she drank, and as dizzying euphoria pulled him under, he only felt relief that the inferno had been quelled. He didn't know if he would wake again. He didn't care._

 


	7. Chapter 7

Shannon sat up with a start, noting he was still in the windowless storage room but he wasn't sure how much time had passed. His head was ringing, his eyes were somewhat unfocused, and at some point, he had dressed or been dressed in his boxers, As the memory of what had transpired between Masha and himself flooded back in, his hand found its way to his neck, noting how tender it was.

He stood and tested his legs. They were wobbly but supported him, so even though the pounding in his head was growing worse as he stood, he gathered his clothing that had been tossed aside in the heat of the moment and set about redressing. He was tying his sneakers when Masha returned with a glass of apple juice.

“Good, you're up,” she said, smiling softly and handing him the glass of juice. When he took it she sat down on a storage chest and watched him while he drank it. “That should help you feel a little better but you'll want to give yourself a few hours.”

“Do I have a few hours?” Shannon asked her, remembering the seriousness of their situation.

“You should be fine. And hopefully, no one will show up tonight anyway. They don't know we're here yet. Well not as far as we know. And they shouldn't have any reason to suspect this is where we are either.” Masha told him. She watched him continue to drink the juice until it was finished before asking him, “How are you feeling?”

Shannon rubbed the spot on his neck again. “Confused. What the hell happened exactly?”

“I'm sorry. I got a little carried away. Like I said, it's been a long time, and you are so susceptible....” Masha trailed off, embarrassed. “It was only after... I mean I didn't influence you to....” She took a deep breath. She knew her feelings for Shannon were very real, as was the attraction between them. She was so afraid she had damaged his trust beyond repair now, but she had to explain what had happened.

“Am I your thrall now? Isn't that what they call it? Like I'm under your spell and have to do your bidding?” Shannon remembered his thoughts in the moment and the question came spilling out of him.

“What? No. What have you been reading? No. You're not still under any kind of influence.”

Shannon didn't fail to notice the qualifier in that sentence. “But I was.”

Masha looked at her hands instead of looking Shannon in the eyes. She sincerely had not meant to do it. She had thought she could maintain control. But as he had touched her her will had dissolved like tissue paper in water until she was so lost in him she didn't know where she ended and he began. “I'm sorry. It wasn't something I planned, I wasn't trying to make you do something you didn't want to do. See, you humans, you usually don't even understand why you're attracted, you just see something you like and you chase it. Your awareness is so limited. Attraction is complex, and there are a great deal of purely psychological factors, but the things that drive it, that put it over the edge, they're much more physical. Chemicals, pheromones. I feel them all.” She moved to sit down next to him on the sofa. “With you it's overwhelming. You're intoxicating.” Just sitting this close to him she could feel it again and she reached out and traced her fingers down the side of his face, half expecting him to flinch away from her touch. When he didn't she sighed and her lips parted, already aching to be on him again. “You're like all my favorite flavors. I just lost myself in the moment.”

Shannon found himself closing his eyes as her touch reignited the intense desire he had been feeling earlier. He had to swallow hard before continuing. “That explains you but it still doesn't tell me what happened to me,” Shannon said, his voice soft.

Masha could see his pupils starting to dilate again, and his respiration was speeding up. Quickly she pulled her hand back. “Uhm...” She licked her lips and then refocused. “We vampires release pheromones too, but also something else, a sort of desire hormone. It's quite powerful and can be completely overwhelming for humans. We also have the ability to control it, holding back when needed or using it to sway someone's behavior.”

Shannon looked at the pale, slender hand she had pulled back, wanting it on him again. “This is that whole “power of seduction” myth, isn't it?”

Masha rolled her eyes. “A lot of that was just sexually frustrated Victorian maidens looking for any outlet they could get. But yes, that is where it comes from. I just got so overwhelmed by you I forgot what I was doing. Please forgive me. I wouldn't influence you unfairly like that intentionally, believe me. And I didn't do it until the heat of the moment. I'm not doing it now either. Anything you felt in the beginning was you. And it is now.”

Shannon nodded. Part of him didn't care if he was under some supernatural influence or not. He was already craving her again, that euphoria burned into his brain. Being with Masha was incredible. He didn't care why. “Is that what you meant when you said there would be consequences? Because now I can't stop thinking about you, but I don't mind.”

Masha shook her head. “No. The effect wears off quickly for you. I assure you it is long gone by now. The consequences were for me, but they will affect you too if I am not careful.” He looked at her so trustingly, so wanting, that she couldn't resist stopping to press her lips to his. He tasted as warm and sweet as when she had first kissed him, and she wished they had more time together. When this was all over, when she began Jared's proper training, she hoped she would have many nights to spend exploring everything about Shannon. She just couldn't lose control again. Not like last night. “Now that I have drunk from you, I will continue to crave you. The more it happens the more I will want you. I hope you can understand how dangerous that is. We can't let it happen again.”

“Yeah.” Shannon looked at her, her gray eyes clouded in concern and regret. He had seen that look from her before. Perhaps if she was feeling guilty for losing control with him he could use that to get some more answers from her. He pulled her hand into his lap and thought about how to ask what he wanted before deciding the direct approach was most likely to get results. “What did you do? In the past I mean. What is it that Jared and I are supposed to be making up for?”

Masha instantly pulled her hand away. “I made a mistake,” she answered without looking at him.

“I gathered that much. I'm asking what that mistake was.” Masha didn't answer him, and Shannon could see she was lost in thought, most likely weighing what would happen if she told him. “Please. I really feel like I need to know.”

Masha sighed and scooted away from him on the sofa, feeling as if it would best if they got some extra distance between them before she started this story. She probably would have told it from the safety of another state if she could, just to keep from having to look at him when she confessed her penultimate error in judgment. “Jared isn't my first child,” she began.

 

_Klara finished putting the last of the herbs she had laid out into the shallow silver pan on the table. As Jared watched she sprinkled them with some sort of oily liquid then struck a match, dropping it into the center of the pan and igniting the contents. The room quickly filled with a noxious cloud of smoke, and Jared had to fight a nearly overpowering urge to run away._

_Silas handed Klara a length of rope and Jared watched in fascination as she passed it through the smoke, chanting in a language that he did not recognize but was sure wasn't her native German. His eyes began to swim and his throat itched, and as he observed Silas, Jared noticed that he too was watery eyed and showing signs of distress. Klara, however, seemed to remain unaffected, chanting on while she fed foot after foot of rope through the dark vapor. .When she had finished she handed the entirety of it to Silas then blew out the embers with a whispered word. The air in the room immediately returned to normal and the hairs on Jared's arms stood up._

“ _Come with me,” Silas instructed, motioning to Jared who followed obediently behind him as they left the small magic room and the busy hexe behind, moving into the loading bay where they had originally parked. Something in here tickled at Jared's senses, a sweet and heavy odor that grew stronger the closer they got to Masha's vehicle. He had noticed it before, on the ride over here, but he had still been trying to make sense of things and it had been lost in a cacophony of other scents and sounds. When Silas threw the tail hatch open the smell grew so overpowering Jared actually stumbled backward, nearly tripping over his own feet._

“ _Quickly,” Silas hissed as he gestured for Jared to help him grab the long wooden crate in the cargo area. They pulled it out and sat it on the floor and Silas quickly began wrapping it in the rope that Klara had prepared for him. The more they entwined it in the magical cord the more the smell dissipated until it vanished altogether._

_As Silas stood and silently regarded the crate Jared was reminded of exactly what, or rather who was inside. “I'm sorry about your friends,” he offered._

_Silas nodded and removed his glasses, rubbing his eyes as he seemed to gather his thoughts. “I'm sorry you never got to meet them. They could have taught you a lot.”_

“ _Maybe you could tell me about them someday?” Jared asked._

_Silas sighed but didn't respond. Jared was having a hard time getting a feeling for the bookish man. He seemed to be much younger than Masha but there was a weariness about him that belied that youth. As affable as he was around the antiquated tomes and dusty apothecary bottles, away from them he became markedly more taciturn. Jared waited patiently to see if he would launch into one of his instructional diatribes but after a time Silas simply returned his glasses to their perch and began walking back towards the living quarters._

“ _Silas?” Jared called to him. He stopped and turned around with a nod of his head but didn't answer. There were so many questions in Jared's head. “Why weren't you with Davrosh too? Why did you leave Subterra?”_

_Silas's entire demeanor immediately changed. His muscles all tightened and his face became strangely neutral. “You don't get to know that yet,” he intoned flatly, eyes avoiding Jared's. “Masha needs to tell you. As her child, you deserve to know. I won't try to clean up for her again.”_

_That was far from the response Jared had hoped for. “Isn't that what you're doing now? Helping her?”_

_Silas shook his head. “I didn't turn her out into the streets because she is family. I am helping because of Davrosh. I supposed because of you too. You've done nothing to deserve this mess. She shouldn't have turned you, even though I understand why she did it, but what's done is done.”_

_Jared was glad to know that whatever the issue was between Masha and Silas that Silas didn't extend those bad feelings to him. He wished he could get more answers but everyone was being so cryptic. There were obviously a lot of secrets between them. “Thank you, I think,” he finally said._

_Silas nodded. “Let's go check on Davrosh. He should be up by now.”_

 

Masha smoothed her hands over her thighs before continuing. “Remember how we were telling you earlier than back in the old country...”

“What's the old country?” Shannon interrupted.

“Romania,” Masha clarified. Shannon gave her an amused look. “Yes, I know, Transylvania and all that, it's a bit on the nose. But as I told you, most of these stories have their seeds in truth. The Moroi are originally from Romania. Other vampires have origins elsewhere. At any rate, back in the old country, there are families that are traditionally drawn upon for additions to our line. The third born in each generation. It isn't considered negotiable, exceptions are not made, the children are prepared from birth for what while be expected of them.”

“That seems a little brutal.”

“Not so much as you might think,” Masha explained. “Again, they are prepared from their earliest understanding for what lies ahead. If they have other dreams they are generally able to pursue them. Being a vampire doesn't prevent you from being an accountant if that is your heart's desire. It just gives you more time to achieve it, and any other dream you might have.”

Shannon frowned, deep in thought. “But how you can be an accountant, or whatever, and still chase down people like Whispers?”

“The Underground isn't all there is. People like Whispers isn't all there is. There's a whole rich supernatural society, intermingling with the human one. You'd be surprised at how many people you have met that are not human. Once Jared is properly trained he'll be free to attempt to resume his career if he so chooses. And he won't be alone. There are other supes in the performing arts. It can be done.”

Shannon nodded and sighed and Masha could see a wave of relief washing over him. She knew he was worried about his younger brother, their clear bond was what had caught her attention after all, but she realized there had to have been some worry for his own future as well. If their band dissolved, where would that leave Shannon? “We'll get you back to your old lives as soon as possible if that's what you want,” she reassured him.

“I think he'll want that,” Shannon replied. Jared had put so much work into his career he couldn't see him walking away now. But they had wandered off subject. “So I'm going to assume that one of these third born children was your previous child? And something happened to him?” Shannon asked by way of redirecting the conversation back to where he wanted it.

“Yes, but there's a little more to it than that. This particular family, the one that was to be mine to draw my child from, had six children. The others do not play into the story but the third was a boy, named Stefan and the fourth was also a boy, named Ioan. Stefan and Ioan were extremely close, almost like twins. Ioan had been very sick as a child and Stefan had grown quite protective of him over the years, so much so that even when they were grown and Ioan no longer struggled with illness Stefan still watched over him very carefully.

“Now Stefan wasn't actually supposed to be my child. There's a sort of waiting list and I wasn't due to have another so soon. But my first child had been trained and was off on her own, so I had both experience and the time available to devote to Stefan. So they asked me to step in instead. Because Stefan was a problem.” Masha stopped at this point and got up from the dusty little sofa, pacing the room anxiously. She realized that she had never told the complete story to anyone before, not anyone who wasn't already in on at least part of it. She wasn't sure she could make Shannon understand, her world was much more nuanced than his, but she was going to try. “Stefan was... violent. Disturbed.”

“Wouldn't those be good properties to have in a vampire?” Shannon asked.

“No, they are not. Not moroi. We have gotten along peacefully with other races for centuries, in large part because we are not needlessly violent, or brutal. We exercise discretion.”

“So why turn him at all? Why not just skip to his younger brother?”

Masha smiled ruefully. “I told you. Third born. No exceptions.”

“But what if....” Shannon objected, about to name any one of a number of scenarios that popped into his head that would make a person unlikely to be a good candidate for vampirism.

“No. Exceptions,” Masha repeated. “I agreed to take him on, somewhat reluctantly, I admit, but I thought I could handle him. I saw the bond the brothers had and I decided to bring Ioan along too, in hope that it would better allow me to control Stefan.”

Shannon began to feel the first hints of true trepidation at where this tale of two brothers could be headed. He began to feel as if he and Jared were standing on someone else's graves. “It didn't work,” he said. It was more a statement than a question.

“No,” Masha answered, shaking her head softly. Her voice was getting quieter, smaller, with each sentence. “Stefan became intoxicated by power. He would sneak away to practice killing. In the beginning, it was only animals, dogs, cats, deer.... I tried to keep a better watch over him, but he was extraordinarily stealthy. He had killed three girls in the nearby town before I realized things had escalated.”

“Fuck,” Shannon said. He had a pretty good idea that this Stefan probably would have been a murderer or serial killer without the addition of the moroi blood. It was dumb luck that had made him third born and the rigid rules of the family line had compounded the error. “What about Ioan? What did he think of what his brother was doing? Didn't having him there help?”

A pained look came over Masha's face. “Ioan, of course, did not approve of Stefan's proclivities. Ioan was kind, and intelligent, and would never have wanted to see another being harmed. But he also loved his brother deeply, and blindly. He refused to admit that Stefan was deeply disturbed. And I couldn't bear to hurt Ioan by taking his brother away. So I packed them both up and moved us to a Subterra compound. I locked Stefan up while we all tried to decide what to do to fix the situation.”

Masha stopped again, twisting at the ring on her finger. She hadn't looked Shannon in the eye for a while now. It was strange repeating all this, it sounded so simple now, so clinical, like it wasn't leading up to the worst day of her life. She tried to keep that emotional distance before she continued. “Stefan managed to escape again. Once he arrived in town, he went on a killing spree. He was savage. Eight young women, dead, bloodied, their throats ripped out. He tore their chests open with his bare hands, leaving bits of their organs scattered around their bodies.

“Ioan was the first to realize he was gone. Knowing what had happened before he headed straight into town. The people had discovered the murders by then and were frantic, angry, looking for someone to blame.”

Shannon interjected. “This sounds terrible but I'm not tracking why this is your fault. He was disturbed before you got your hands on him...”

“Shh.” Masha quieted Shannon. “I'm not done yet. I wasn't too far behind Ioan, but by the time I got to the town a mob had formed. He tried of course to profess his innocence but he was the only stranger in what was essentially a small village and they would not listen to him.” She took a deep breath. The next few minutes had played out in her head over and over again in the over half-century since this had happened. The memories were as fresh as if they had happened that morning. “They tied him to a tree on the edge of the woods and began to torture him, tearing into his flesh the way the girls had been ravaged. His cries brought Stefan out from his hiding place.”

“He stopped them, right?” Shannon questioned, although Masha could tell by his expression he was perfectly aware that if that was where the story had ended no one would be this angry this many years later. Masha shook her head.

“I made a series of decisions that night. I watched them tying Ioan to that tree and I did not intervene. I knew his suffering was the best way to catch Stefan. It was a calculated move. When Stefan appeared to rescue his brother I stopped him, commanding him to stand by in silence and observe. I knew if I let him into the fray there would be more dead than the eight girls that had already been eviscerated. And then I made him watch while the villagers tore his beloved little brother apart piece by piece. I wanted to him to see what his indiscretion had caused. I wanted him to know what it felt like to suffer while someone you loved died. I wanted him to change.”

“That's...” Shannon's voice was barely above a whisper. Masha could see the wheels turning in his head as he tried to reason away her culpability. She knew he couldn't do it. She went back to her story.

“I should have cut Stefan's head off after the first kill. At the very least he deserved it for what he had done in that village. But I couldn't admit I had failed. So I used sweet Ioan to try to teach him a lesson. When the villagers had finished with his brother I took Stefan back to the base and locked him up again. Once he was secured I returned to town to retrieve Ioan's body so that he could be buried properly. It didn't take long, I was gone for maybe a little more than hour.”

She bit her lip. She didn't know why she was hesitating now. Truly the worst of her decision had been allowing Ioan to die as a lesson to his brother. But she was acutely aware of how much Shannon's demeanor had changed since the story began. She was certain she had lost him. Maybe he was her lesson to learn. She took a minute and then continued. “By the time I returned to the base, Stefan had escaped once again. To this day I do not know how he did it, he seemed to have some uncanny ability. He was locked in a cell with a heavy door and formidable lock, one that should have kept in any number of supernatural creatures. But I returned to find Stefan in the middle of a pile of bodies, all the Subterra operatives that been at the base. There was blood everywhere. I don't know how he overpowered them all, I don't understand how any of it happened exactly. But I could see by the look in his eyes he was completely mad. He just kept licking the blood off his hands and arms and laughing. When I finally did what I should have done at the beginning, when I took his head, he didn't even try to fight me. Didn't flinch at all.”

Shannon nodded, unsure what to say to any of it. There was nothing he could say really, she had done a terrible thing, and she was right, the blame was largely hers. He felt certain she was remorseful, and that she had probably been trying to atone for her mistake in the years since but it was a lot to digest.

“Stefan killed eleven Underground members by himself, barehanded. As little more than a newborn. He was an abomination that never should have been. We will now make exceptions, we will never again take someone who is that clearly disturbed. But it doesn't undo what was done. Just like saving your brother and trying to keep you two together won't undo what I allowed to happen to Ioan. And nothing will ever make Silas forgive me.”

Shannon thought perhaps he had missed part of the story. “Why Silas in particular?”

“His wife was one of the eleven.”

 

_Jared and Silas stopped first to check on the banshee sisters, who were still slumbering away in a back bedroom, presumably exhausted from their ordeal. Then they made their way to where Davrosh was sleeping. He seemed to have moved from his previous position but didn't rouse when Silas called out to him. Jared reached out to touch him but felt something strange in the older man's presence. Instinctively he stepped back, putting some distance between himself and what felt like a feral animal awakening in front of him. Jared realized that Silas had stopped too. When the older vampire turned around to face Jared his eyes were wild, terrified. Jared could see Davrosh starting to stir behind him._

“ _That's not Davrosh,” Silas choked out. “Get the girls. Run.”_

 


	8. Chapter 8

Jared could feel a terror awakening in his chest like a dark cavern, a void that swallowed up the air and light and threatened to pull him down into it as well. He was surprised that his fear, that fight-or-flight response seemed to be working pretty much as it always had. His breathing had sped up, his muscles were coiled and ready to spring into action and the blood in his veins seemed to animate. He looked at the figure behind Silas that was getting larger with each passing second. It still looked somewhat like the elder vampire that they had brought in but it was distorting as it grew, dark crevices erupting on its surface, places where the light seemed to distort and the space around them seemed not to belong there anymore.

“Go!” Silas repeated his urgent plea. “I'll try to hold him off here to give you time to get the girls out. Hurry!”

Jared quickly sped back to the small magic annex where Klara was still working, bent over the broad wooden table with her back to the door. “Come with me, we have to take the girls and get out of here.”

“What now?” Klara asked, whirling around, not even bothering to hide her annoyance with him. When she saw the fearful look on his face, however, she knew now was neither the time to argue nor ask questions. She grabbed a few things from the table and followed him.

“What's happening?” she asked as they sped to the bedroom where the banshee sisters were waiting.

“It's Davrosh. But he wasn't Davrosh,” Jared tried to explain. “Whatever it was it woke up and started changing...”

“Changing how?” Klara demanded.

“He seemed to be growing, swelling up sort of. And his skin was cracking and there was blackness where it cracked....”

“Shit. Did he feel different to you?”

From the way she was asking, Jared had a pretty good idea that Klara knew what was happening. “Yeah, actually, he did. Like he wasn't the same person we brought in...”

They rounded the corner into the small bedroom to see that the sisters were still tucked soundly in their beds. Klara quickly pulled a pillowcase loose and filled it with the objects she had carried from the magic annex and then scooped up Keera. Jared already had Addy in his arms, and the pair were starting to awaken now that they had been disturbed. “What do we do now?” Jared asked.

“If that's what I think it is in Davrosh, then we need to get the girls away from here. I don't know if Silas can defeat it....”

“Shouldn't I go help him then? Should I find Shannon and Masha?”

“Help me get the girls to the car first.”

Jared noticed she hadn't answered his question. “What do you think it is Klara?”

She was already heading out the door, Keera's arms around her neck. “A leyak. They hide themselves in something-- a person, a supe, an animal – and then consume them and shed their skin before striking. So that was Davrosh when we brought him in but if the Leyak has awakened he is gone now. They are very powerful and...”

Two things happened almost simultaneously. There was a bellowing shout coming from the room that the creature they had taken as Davrosh had been sleeping in. Jared was unsure if it was Silas or the leyak. The second thing that happened was that Keera, the first of the sisters to fully awaken, screamed. Jared knew the sound was coming from her because he was looking at her when her tiny mouth opened and her head fell back. If he hadn't been looking at her he never would have associated the sound with the slight little girl with the tangly hair and fox-like eyes. It seemed to come from everywhere at once, a shrill, ear-splitting shriek that echoed off every surface and told something in the primitive survival portion of his brain that very bad things were happening.

Klara let go of Keera with an involuntary shout and covered her ears. Even after tumbling to the ground the youngest banshee didn't stop her wailing, and it took every ounce of self-control Jared could muster not to stop and cover up his own newly sensitive ears. He gritted his teeth and leaned over to pick Keera up. Thankfully Addy either was satisfied that enough shrieking was being done not to add her own voice to the outcry, or had enough presence of mind to understand that shouting in the ear of the man trying to save you was counterproductive. Either way, Jared was grateful for her silence.

“Can you quiet your sister down, please?” he asked her. Addy shrugged to communicate her uncertainty about the potential success of any attempts to quash the younger girl's laments but she reached over and started stroking Keera's arm, making soft whistling noises as she did so. Jared trying rocking the pair reassuringly and after what seemed like an eternity but was in reality probably only a few seconds, Keera ceased her wailing and shoved her thumb into her mouth.

Jared could see Klara pulling herself together, and he had to ask the question that was burning at him. “Does that mean someone is already dead or that they're going to die?” he inquired, acutely aware he had no idea where Shannon was right now. He could still feel a human presence in the cavernous space but it was either faint or not nearby. He thought it was the latter but he wasn't practiced enough to have any real certainty about that determination, not when it was something so important.

“It means someone is dying. It is probably for Davrosh. With the leyak resuming its own form Davrosh is being consumed. He was your grandfather. I am surprised you do not feel it.” Jared thought about the terror and dread he felt standing in Davrosh's room. He had assumed it was just a fear reaction, but it could very well have been in response to whatever was happening to Davrosh.

“Which means we need to hurry,” Jared pointed out. He needed to get them to safety so he could find his brother. He ushered the group along, past the small kitchen and through the cluttered living area but stopped before he came to the small office they had initially entered. He dropped the girls and grabbed Klara by the arm before she crossed the small window that provided a view through the office and out onto the loading bay. Holding one finger to his lips he peered carefully through the glass where he could see the darkened and empty office. He could see the SUV waiting in the loading bay as well, and even though he could see no one else there his senses told him they were not alone. As he watched, the large bay door rolled open and several figures came into view, still standing outside. Jared's muscles tightened as he realized who was waiting.

“Little pig, I see we meet again. I can smell you in there,” rang out the familiar voice. “Don't try to tell me you don't have my girls in there this time, I heard them. But that's okay. I have something of yours too.”

Two figures were suddenly shoved into the small circle illuminated by the security light over the door, male and female, they were bound together and looked far angrier than they did frightened. Jared figured they were the two missing members of Masha's cell.

“That's Astrid and Cotton,” Klara confirmed, her voice the lowest whisper she could manage. “I don't see Michael.”

“They can't come in here, right?” Jared asked.

Klara shook her head. “No. Which is probably the reason they used the leyak, to drive us out. It's no coincidence that it awoke at sunset.”

Jared looked over at Keera and Addy who were clutching each other in much the way they had when they had first arrived. “Take the girls, go back to the magic annex and lock yourselves in.”

Klara shook her head. “You don't know what you're doing. You're just a baby. I have skills....”

“Then use them to protect the girls. I'm going to go find Masha and help deal with the leyak. Then you can help us all figure out a way out of here."

 

Masha took in the hard line of Shannon's jaw and the shift in his gaze. “I was a very different person then. I was committed to Subterra and to the family. I thought any means justified preserving them. Humans were often causalities when our various factions went to war. What was one more casualty if it preserved the balance of the Tretat and protected the family?”

Shannon shook his head. “But that's...”

“Cold. Selfish. Monstrous. I know.” Not that it would have made any difference to Shannon but there were as many in her community who saw no problem with what she had done as those who had condemned her. Masha's attitude had been the prevalent one at the time, it was simply the way they looked at their relationship with the human society around them. It wasn't an excuse, she should have known better even then, but at least things were changing now. “You can't begin to imagine how much I regret what happened. And losing Evangeline like that, it just broke Silas. He's never been the same. When he left the Underground, I was secretly relieved, because watching him go through his days in that much pain was a sort of torture for me as well. But I didn't deserve to be let off the hook so easily, and by the time I figured out him leaving was worse than him staying he was long gone. We've never managed to repair our relationship. I don't know if we ever will.”

“So should I be worried you're going to throw me under the bus to keep Jared in line? Is that why you brought me along too?”

“How could you ask me that? Do you not understand the point of what I am telling you? I did a terrible thing, a thing that has haunted me for almost 50 years now. I understand now why it was so wrong and I am not the person I was then. I would never repeat my mistake. I would never throw anyone away like that again, human or not.” Masha was shaking, her eyes damp. “I won't harm you and I won't let any harm come to you either. I swear it.”

Shannon wanted to be angry with her, or least be wary of her. But it seemed to him she had made a miscalculation, one she had bitterly regretted and learned from, and the hardness in her heart that had made it possible was long since gone. Saving Jared to spare Shannon pain may not have made up for her mistake but it did show she had learned from it and changed. Her world was very different from his, the stakes were so much higher, and it seemed that even a simple misstep could quickly spiral into something monstrous. She had done a terrible thing but it was possible she wasn't terrible. Although her regret was palpable, she wasn't even asking forgiveness. He was sure she felt that she was beyond being able to be forgiven. He didn't like to remember it but Shannon had been there once before himself, a miscalculation of his own when he was blind drunk that had nearly cost a friend his life and had changed it forever. He had to believe that no one was beyond redemption. He reached over and took Masha's hand.

“I trust you,” he told her, rubbing his thumb over the smooth skin of her wrist. “You're just going to have to keep trying.”

Masha nodded and slipped her hand from his, falling into the safety of his embrace. He held her for a moment, the contact reassuring both of them that their nascent bond was still unbroken, before brushing his fingers underneath her chin, tilting her up for a kiss. “Thank you,” she murmured breathlessly. “For giving me a chance. I promise I won't let you regret it.”

Shannon nodded and smiled at her, his arm still keeping her pulled tightly against him. As he watched, her expression began to change, her gray eyes darkening and clouding over, the smile turning to a look of shock. “Masha?” he questioned.

Masha took a step back, her hand flying to her chest. She looked around the room in wild confusion, her breath coming in rapid, shallow pants. Shannon called her name again but she couldn't make herself respond, her awareness seemed to be pulled elsewhere as she filled with an unexplained dread. With a sense of horror, she began to suspect what the strange feeling was when the air was split with a roar that made the hair at the back of her neck stand up. This sound was immediately followed by a cry she had heard the night before, the wail of a young banshee.

“What's happening?” Shannon croaked.

Masha seemed to find her wits. “I think Davrosh... “ she couldn't bring herself to say it. “Stay here," she ordered, rushing out of the small room without further explanation, without stopping to see if he would comply.

Shannon waited a few seconds for her to be gone then cautiously poked his head out of the doorway. There didn't seem to be anyone else around and the eerie sound of the banshee's lament had stopped. He hurried back toward the main living area, thinking that he would check up on the girls and make sure everything was all right.

As he made his way through the halls he passed Klara who was leading Keera and Addy back to the room Silas had taken her to earlier. He tried to demand an explanation from her as well but she cut him off.

“We're under siege and there's something inside. Come with us, right now,” she demanded.

“Where's my brother?”

“Being a fool. Don't follow his lead.”

Shannon waved her off and headed in the direction of Davrosh's room.

 

Masha and Jared arrived outside Davrosh's room almost simultaneously. They only had time to exchange a look before Masha burst through the door, immediately dropping into a fighting stance. Jared was steps behind her but what he saw when he entered the room made him stop in his tracks.

The thing that had been Davrosh, the leyak, had swelled in size until its head brushed against the high ceiling. Its body seemed to be made of curved darkness, emptiness shaped like a giant man, with the organs and entrails visible and seemingly suspended in midair. Its head was enormous, cavernous eyes and an elongated tongue protruding from between monstrous yellow teeth. Silas stood his ground in front of it, his glasses gone and face and hands bloodied. Upon seeing Jared and Masha rush into the room it bellowed, and the air around Jared rippled with a fetid wind. Jared suddenly wished he had not been so quick to dismiss Klara.

The leyak swung its colossal arm at Silas, knocking him off his feet. Something he had been holding escaped from his hand and skittered across the floor, landing closest to Jared. He immediately scrambled after it, shoving aside the dresser it had come to rest under. Amidst the dust bunnies and cobwebs was a small wrought iron knife, and he quickly picked it up and turned back toward the fight.

“The eye,” Silas shouted, “You have to stab it in the eye with that knife.”

Horrified, Jared looked at the yawning apertures that swayed several feet over his head. He wanted to run away but he remembered Klara and the girls were still in the building, and so was Shannon somewhere. Besides, Whispers and his gang had the exit blocked, there was nowhere to run to anyway. He lept up onto the bed, brandishing the knife with a shout.

Silas swept his leg across the floor, connecting with the blackness that was the hulking leyak's own leg. It roared again and looked down at what had to be little more than an annoyance to it. Jared seized the opportunity and took a flying leap at the floating head, only to be blocked by a massive arm that sent him flying into the back wall. The wind was knocked out of him by the impact but the feeling was quite different, only effecting such superfluous functions as speech. He quickly recovered and rose to his feet again, looking for another opportunity to charge.

“Be ready,” Masha directed once he had regained his footing. Jared noticed Silas was back on his feet too and he wondered what the pair of siblings had in mind. As he watched they moved on the mammoth beast, climbing on its limbs and beating against its chest until it could do nothing but try to cast them off. As Jared moved in more closely to be ready when an opportunity presented itself it swung one arm around the room, its clawed end connecting with Jared's thigh, shredding his pants and drawing up thick furrows of torn tissue and blood. He lost his footing momentarily, surprised that the black appendage even possessed claws, but his supernatural fortitude had him wobbling back into an upright position immediately in spite of the sharp pain that made his head swim.

Silas reached the creature's shoulders first, and swinging from them like a demented monkey he began batting at the leyak's head. Jared was astounded as his fearlessness and ferociousness, it was not at all what he would have expected from the almost meek appearing man he had been dealing with all day.

Jared mounted the bed again, just as Masha swung herself around behind the leyak's head. Swallowing his fear Jared lept at it again, and this time the knife connected with something hard. The leyak howled and shook the vampires loose, its arms swinging around wildly as it bolted from the room and into the hallway, the knife stuck just at the edge of its eye.

Jared watched everything swing into slow motion as the monster lurched forward, blasting the door open and spinning about. It's spiraling arms connected with the figure that had just rounded the corner, and in its fury, its claws dug in far deeper than they had when they connected with Jared's leg. Helplessly he watched as it tore through Shannon, his shirt blossoming red as tender insides became outsides, entrails loosed from behind fragile human muscle and skin. The claw swept upward, leaving a swath of destruction that ended at his older brother's cheek. He was frozen in place as he watched Shannon fall, first to his knees then onto his back, the startled expression never leaving his face. Behind him Masha screamed, leaping forward and into the air, her hands connecting with the protruding knife and driving it the rest of the way into the leyak's eye. It fell to the ground with an anti-climactic thump.

Jared couldn't move, couldn't make his brain understand what had just happened. He watched as Masha bent over Shannon, chattering rapidly, pleading for him to be okay, but Jared knew that wouldn't be the case. He could see the pool of blood rapidly forming underneath him.

The banshees began to wail.

 

 


	9. Chapter 9

Masha's hands shook as she pressed at the protruding sections of Shannon's abdomen and she fought to ignore both the terror in his eyes and the intoxicating scent of his spilled blood. She had most certainly seen worse things than this before, hell she had done worse things than this herself, but for reasons she couldn't entirely get her head around despite her earlier speech to Shannon, she had already grown deeply attached to the man who had only just appeared in her life.

“I'm so sorry I'm so sorry so sorry sorry....” the words tumbled out as little more than nonsense as she tried to get a grip on her senses. The damage was severe, more severe than the injuries that had been destined to kill Jared only a day ago. Of course, her first instinct was to turn him as she had Jared, but she had never seen anyone with such a grave injury survive the transformation. She didn't think she had heard of anyone even attempting it.

Jared raced to her side, taking his older brother's hand as he knelt next to him. “Come on Shannon, hang on just a minute, we've got this, just give us a few minutes,” he pleaded. Shannon gave his hand a weak squeeze. Jared wondered if this is what it had looked like when he was lying on the ground. Had Shannon knelt over him as well, pleading for his life, pleading for any kind of chance? He looked at Masha who was still shaking and covered to the elbows now in spilled blood but hadn't yet begun to do anything to save Shannon. “What are you waiting for?” he demanded. Surely they couldn't have more than a few minutes at this point if even that.

“His injuries... are too severe.... “ Masha choked out between sobs.

“Fuck that, you don't know that!” Jared shouted at her, but he could smell fear and death all over Shannon too. The knowledge that he was afraid, that his protector big brother was hurt and frightened nearly made him come apart. He wasn't ready for this, he wasn't tough enough for this life, not yet, not without Shannon. He squeezed Shannon's hand again and moved so that his face was in view. He needed him to know he was right there with him, that he was fighting for him. He put on the bravest face that he could and smoothed Shannon's hair back from his eyes. In the background, the banshee sisters were still shrieking. “Shut them the fuck up!” he exploded.

Silas came up behind Jared, placing his hand gently on his back. “It won't help to shout at them, they're only doing what instinct tells them.”

“Whispers is out front. They're giving us away!” Jared hissed. Silas looked at him in confusion but Jared didn't have time to elaborate, his focus was on Shannon. “And no one is dying tonight!”

Masha shook her head. It seemed terrible but fair to her that she should be offered happiness and companionship just to have it immediately snatched away from her in the most brutal fashion. It did not seem fair to her, however, that Shannon should have to pay with his life for her to learn that lesson, or that another pair of brothers should suffer as cosmic vengeance for her own monstrous misdeed. She wasn't simply being cautious or calculating when she had said she thought his injuries were too severe. Even at full strength, it would take everything in her just to try to turn him in this condition. And having turned a drastically injured Jared only the day before and having given up so much blood to do so she wasn't sure she had the strength to come through this. Asking Silas to turn him was no use, he had made it very clear a long time ago he would never change anyone and he was certainly not about to do Masha any favors. Especially not to save the man she was falling in love with. Not after what she had cost him.

There was the matter of Whispers as well. If they had the place surrounded Masha would be needed in order to assist in the defense of their little band of survivors. Attempting to heal and turn Shannon would surely incapacitate her, and leave Silas in charge of their survival. Was it fair to the group for her to give everything just to save Shannon if they all ended up dying because of it? Where did her responsibility to the others begin and end? It only took seconds to turn all this over in her head, the reality of her rapidly developing feelings for Shannon, the fate she deserved but he did not, the direness of their current situation; to realize that whatever choice she made would be a selfish one. If she let Shannon die it would be to save herself, and saving him would spare her heart a loss but they all might die as a result. But as she thought back over their brief time together, as she remembered drinking from him earlier she began to realize that there was a possibility. She agonized over whether or not to take it for only a second. She wasn't sure if this was what Shannon would want but it wasn't his decision to make any longer. She looked at Jared and nodded.

“Go and get all the blood we have. Now!” Masha demanded of Silas. She couldn't have him sitting there and watching. She knew he wouldn't approve and if it went wrong at all he couldn't be trusted not to stop her. Even now he was giving her a disapproving look, his eyes hard as he stayed his ground. Masha waited as precious seconds ticked away, and when he still didn't move she shouted at him again to hurry. Masha desperately wished she could command him. Silas shook his head as if he were about to say something and then got up and ran in the direction of the kitchen.

Masha scooped Shannon up and pulled him against her. He was in shock and disoriented, but she desperately hoped he could hear her and understand her, and that he would be able to remember what she was saying. There was no way to know if this would work, or what would be their fate afterward, and since he would be unconscious while he attempted to heal this could very well be all the time they had left.

“I'm so sorry love,” she sobbed in his ear. “I thought we would have more time together. There is so much I wanted to show you, this world is dangerous but it is even more amazing. I wanted to walk through it with you.”

“Please,” Jared pleaded, not understanding what must have sounded to him like Masha conceding defeat. There were tears running down his ashen face as well, and he looked even more stricken than Shannon had when he had attended Jared's dying moments. “Please don't give up on him. Please try.”

Masha pressed her lips to Shannon''s rapidly cooling ones, the taste of her own tears catching between them. There were other things she had planned to say but she knew she was out of time. It was now or not at all. Swiftly she pulled the wrought iron knife from the dead leyak's eye socket and turned it over in her hand. She knew her wrist wouldn't do. The only way this stood a chance was if she could get a lot of blood into Shannon very quickly. Without hesitation she plunged the knife into her neck, opening the broad vein there for the most efficient access before clutching Shannon's head against her. His mouth pressed against her throat in a cruel reflection of his earlier kisses but he didn't respond. “Drink,” she pleaded with her dying lover as she clutched his hair and anchored him in place. “Please, remember what I told you. I need you to survive.”

Shannon's hand moved against Masha's leg but he made no attempt to swallow the precious liquid that was now streaming into his mouth. Masha could feel it running down her skin and soaking her shirt. That wouldn't do, there wasn't enough to waste. She thought perhaps she had been wrong, she should have started him on her wrist and then moved him to her neck once the change started but it was too late to turn back now. She gave him a shake, all the while keeping his head cradled against her open vein as she begged and pleaded with him to please start drinking. She could still hear his heartbeat, faint as it was, but he showed no sign of responding to her. She tried to quell the panic that was rising in her chest, reminding herself that Jared had been less severely injured and he had taken time to drink as well, but each second that ticked by with her clothing growing wetter and Shannon lying still against her caused her hope to fade.

“Why isn't he drinking?” Jared demanded. Masha shook her head and shrugged helplessly. Jared cupped his older brother's face, pressing his forehead to Shannon's cheek. “Please don't do this to me, Shan,” he choked. “Please don't leave me alone. Please! How can I tell Mom I let you die?”

As the three of them huddled in the shadow of the dead leyak the seconds ticked by in agonizing slowness. Keera and Addy had yet to quiet down, and when Klara suddenly appeared in the hallway next to them Jared assumed it was morbid curiosity that had driven her from the shelter of the tiny room. When she took in what was happening, to Jared's surprise she knelt next to him and took his free hand. He was squeezing it tightly when he felt the muscles in Shannon's throat contract.

Unlike when Jared had been turned, once Shannon got the first gulp of vampiric blood he couldn't stop drinking fast enough. In seconds he had grabbed Masha, pulling her against him as he lapped and slurped noisily at the copious flow. Jared observed in grateful awe as Shannon began to animate, but he didn't fail to notice the ever-present thunder of his heart that had been fading since he fell was growing even slower and quieter. Soon enough it was gone altogether and with a start, he realized that the sisters had stopped their death song. He looked over at Klara who seemed to suddenly come to her senses and pull her hand out of his grasp.

“What the fuck, Masha!” Silas had come running around the corner, arms laden with chilled bags of blood but he came to an immediate halt when he saw what was happening. Jared was confused by his reaction until he looked at Masha. Her grip on Shannon was faltering and her eyes had gone unfocused and glassy. Her mouth hung slightly open and she didn't react at all to Silas's exclamation. “What the fuck did you do?” he demanded, letting the bags he was carrying tumble to the ground. He turned to Jared. “Get him off her!”

Masha gripped Shannon with all the strength she could still summon and let out a menacing growl. She didn't have the strength to do much more or fight Silas off he pushed the issue but she had made her decision clear. She extended one arm limply in his direction, pointing and sweeping it about, waiting for him to catch up to her plan.

“The blood! She wants the blood!” Klara exclaimed, quickly gathering up a bag and opening the associated tube before offering it to Masha. Jared gathered the rest of the bags and sat down next to Klara and the two of them continued to feed blood into Masha while Shannon drank from her. She had gone through four bags when he finally stopped, his arms falling limply away as he colapsed and melted into Jared's lap. Jared looked questioningly at Klara but Klara just nodded and asked for another pouch.

“Take care of him, he'll be out for a while. I'll take care of Masha,” she told him as she pressed her hand to Masha's throat. Jared looked up at Silas who still stood where he dropped the blood he had been carrying, his face a mask of fury. Jared was confused by his reaction, there didn't seem to be any love lost between the Masha and Silas, but he didn't think it was his place to get involved. He rose to his feet before picking Shannon up as easily as if he were a small child and he carried him back to the small storage room with the sisters, who observed him with large and serious eyes. As he laid Shannon out on the empty table and observed his still broken but visibly healing body, it occurred to him that they were once again fully siblings.

 

When he got back out to the bloody hallway Klara was still fussing over Masha, who looked slightly more animated but was refusing to take the additional blood Klara was trying to get her to drink. “Do you think you can stand?” Jared asked her. “We should probably get everyone out of this hallway. Where's Silas?”

“He went to go see what Whispers was doing,” Klara supplied. “I told him he has Astrid and Cotton.”

Masha tried to get to her feet but they slipped out from underneath her. Jared quickly stepped forward and scooped her up and her head came to rest limply against his chest. He was startled by how different she felt, how much smaller, how light in her arms in spite of the way her muscles had all gone slack. “They aren't vampires, are they? Astrid and Cotton I mean,” he asked.

Klara shook her head. “No. And she needs to drink more.” Klara began gathering up the remaining bags that Silas had dropped while Jared stepped carefully over the leyak and started carrying Masha back to the annex, cautious not to slip on the wet floor, trying not to think about why it was wet. He couldn't hear Whispers back here but he imagined he was still outside the warehouse doors, shouting taunts at the band of them trapped inside. He wondered what his next attempt to drive them out would cost them.

Back in the small magic sanctuary, Shannon was exactly where Jared had left him minutes before but Addy was pulling things off the shelves. He put Masha down next to Keera and went to check on Shannon again.

“How is he?” Masha asked. “I can't really feel him right now. Too much of my blood is still human I think.”

Jared placed his hand on Shannon's still chest. “I can feel him in there. It's faint but he's still with us.”

Klara appeared then, setting their remaining blood supply next to Masha. “You need to drink more. You're still too weak,” she admonished.

Masha shook her head. “We already don't have enough for Shannon when he wakes. I think my body just needs time to convert what it already has. I'm sure I'll be stronger soon.”

“You're only guessing. I've never seen any vampire drained that much before. We don't have time to wait and Shannon isn't going to need any blood at all if Whispers and his people kill us all.” Klara corrected her but Masha still refused to drink. Klara threw up her hands and started muttering in German as she went to see what Addy was doing. “Oh hey, that's a good idea, let me help you,” she told the girl as she took inventory of what Addy had pulled out of the shelves. 

Jared watched them for a few minutes knowing that any questions he asked about what they were planning would simply receive a sarcastic remark or go unanswered. He felt completely useless there, so he announced he was going to go check up on Silas and left Klara to do whatever she was doing. Klara simply nodded and continued arranging items on her worktable but Masha at least admonished him to be careful. 

Jared found Silas in the kitchen, making a phone call, warning whoever was on the other end to stay away from the store, they had unwelcome visitors. “Can't they help us?” Jared asked, but Silas just shook his head and tucked his hair back. As soon as he hung up the phone Jared began shouting, all the pent-up fear and frustration rushing out of him at the only target he could find. 

“What the fuck? Are we all just going to sit in here and wait for them to come after us?" He was baffled by Silas's apparent passivity. "Your father has been killed and Shannon and Masha are nearly dead from their first attempt to drive us out. They've got two of your people hostage and you're just wandering around here, waiting for round two like you don't give a fuck about anything but big dusty books and ancient history!”

Silas gritted his teeth and grabbed Jared by the shoulders. “You need to stop this shit right now. You have no idea what you're talking about or what I care about. You better get it through your head right now that as long as you are with the Underground, even if you're not a member, there is always going to be some disaster around the next corner. There will always be someone innocent being hurt, someone abusing their abilities, someone who wants you dead and is actively trying to kill you and everyone you care about. It never ends if you don't just pick a point and walk away. And even after you've walked away you know it's still all going out there. All you get is a little break until it shows back up at your door again. It's not that I don't care. I'm just tired. It already took everything important from me. All I'm doing now is trying to survive.” He let go of Jared's shoulders with a little shove and turned around.

Jared wasn't sure what to say to any of that. “We need...”

“A distraction. I know. I'm working on it.” Silas rubbed his temples in frustration, already regaining his composure. In the background, Jared could faintly hear Whispers still shouting outside, although he couldn't make out what he was saying from in here. 

“Klara and Addy have an idea. I think. It's not like she tells me anything.”

Silas frowned. “And Masha? Shannon?”

“She's pretty weak. And he's hanging in there, but he's unconscious.”

“Of course she's gone and done something sentimental that will probably screw us all. Ever since...” Silas trailed off with a grumble then started walking out of the kitchen, motioning for Jared to follow.

They took up observation positions at the office window. Whispers was still where Jared had left him before, pacing the alley and shouting vague insults. He looked to be in his teens, even though Jared was sure that was not the case, and he was tall and lanky with dark hair past his shoulders, wearing a long black coat that along with the rest of his clothing pretty much screamed: “Hey I think I'm a vampire!” If Jared had passed him on the street he would have thought he was just some vamp-obsessed goth kid and never given him a second glance. He was chewing on his fingers and every time he spun around on his heel for another lap his hair would flare out dramatically. It was all so over the top it would have been comical if the situation weren't so grave. “We just have to wait him out, right? Until sunrise I mean, since he can't come in here.”

“I don't think he's going to make it that easy,” Silas pointed out. Almost on cue Whispers grabbed Cotton and untied his feet before pushing him to his knees. 

“Little pig, little pig, let me in,” Whispers singsonged as he circled Cotton. “All I want is those girls. I went to a lot of trouble to get them, they're mine now. You had no right to take them from me. Give them back and this can all be over.”

Jared was quite sure that giving Keera and Addy over to Whispers wasn't going to save anyone, let alone the sisters. “Isn't there another way out?” he asked Silas.

“Yes, but they have those blocked too.” 

Whispers put his foot between Cotton's shoulders and gave him a shove. “If you don't come out to me I'm going to send someone in to you and something very very bad is going to happen. How did you like my last surprise? I heard those girls singing for you. I'm thinking at least one of you didn't like it as much as the others, hmmm?” Whispers laughed and grabbed Cotton by his short brown hair. Cotton's expression never changed from the venomous glare he was giving Whispers. 

“Fuck you,” he said. “No one is giving up shit and I don't care what you do to us they're not going to give you those girls.”

Whispers bent down and leaned into Cotton, their faces inches apart. “You had better hope you're wrong.” he intoned. “I will get what I want or I will burn down this whole fucking place with those girls in it.”

Klara appeared at Jared's side then, seemingly out of nowhere. “We have a plan,” she told Silas. “I need about 10 more minutes. Do I have it?”

“I'll make sure you do,” Silas told her. She nodded and ran back to the magic annex. 

Jared watched as Whispers held out his hand and a short man in baggy clothes placed a large shimmery egg-shaped object onto his open palm. For the first time the look on Cotton's face shifted, and although Jared wouldn't necessarily categorize it as fearful, the look of defiance seemed to falter. 

“Fuck,” Silas hissed. “Get ready to move.”

“What is that?” Jared asked but Silas was grabbing his arm and motioning for him to be quiet. 

Cotton was staring up at Whispers, his fists clenched and jaw locked. Whispers motioned to his henchmen and two of them stepped forward, grabbing Cotton and forcing his mouth open while Whispers shoved the mysterious egg past Cotton's lips. Jared would have thought it was too large to be swallowed, but as he watched Cotton's throat bulged and a strange gurgling noise escaped him. He strained at the ropes binding his wrists together but they held fast. After a moment he stopped struggling and his face went slack. With a smirk, Whispers hauled him to his feet, cut the ropes loose and shoved him through the open doorway.

Cotton stumbled around in the loading bay, looking disoriented. His feet seemed to catch on each other as he headed deeper into the cavernous space, past Masha's parked SUV and the wooden case that held the remains of the dead moroi from the cell. He opened his mouth as if to speak but nothing came out. Jared thought he could hear Silas chanting under his breath, “Fight it, fight it, fight it,” as he grimly watched the other man struggling. 

As he gripped at his throat Cotton continued to careen wildly about the loading bay, bumping into a shelving unit and knocking its contents to the concrete floor. The harsh clang as the metal tools hit the hard surface caused Jared to gasp and he realized he had been holding his breath. As the dark haired man neared the office he dropped to his knees, hands splayed out in front of him on the cold gray floor. His shoulders heaved with the effort of trying to bring back up whatever he had swallowed and the space was now filled with the sound of his retching. Jared gave Silas a questioning look.

“There's nothing we can do for him,” Silas whispered. “It's up to him to fight it.”

“Fight what, what's happening?”

“Cotton is a vargulf, a werewolf. The thing they made him swallow will force him to change, to go into a blood frenzy if he is not able to fight it.” They turned their attention back to Cotton who was still gripping the concrete floor, his body racked with increasingly violent spasms. “I don't think he's going to make it," Silas observed. "Run back to the annex, tell Klara we've got a vulkodlak, and have her give you a silver knife. Then tell them to lock themselves in. I don't think anyone in there is strong enough to fight him off.”

Jared nodded and hurried back to the rest of the group. Klara and Addy were working together to fill two silver jars and Masha was on her feet again, bent over Shannon who was still unchanged. 

“Uhm, I need a silver knife,” he told Klara, trying to remember the name of the creature Silas had used. “Vulkodlak in the loading bay.”

“Cotton,” Masha choked out. Jared simply nodded. 

Klara retrieved the desired knife from a drawer under the table and handed it over. “I”m almost ready. Five more minutes maybe,” she told him.

“I don't think we have five more minutes. Stay in here until we deal with this.”

By the time Jared returned to Silas it was clear his prediction had been correct. The thing crouching in the loading bay no longer looked like the man who had been pushed through its door. In his place was an almost fully transformed wolf, larger than any that Jared had ever seen before, covered in thick dark fur. He tightened his grip on the knife as he watched its bones settle into the proper places before it shook itself and turned its head his direction. Its eyes were glowing a cold and pale orange gold and it drew its lips back over crimson gums and shining fangs and made a predatory growl. 

“The knife will paralyze it but we have to break its neck,” Silas supplied as he drew himself up, no longer bothering to whisper. 

“Do we have to kill him?” Jared asked, thinking of the daring way Cotton had fought to defy Whispers right up until the last minute. Jared had a feeling he would have liked him.

“There's no way to change him back now. He...” Silas was cut off by the vulkodlak crashing through the office window. Silas immediately backed up to draw him into the living room where he had more space to fight him and Jared instinctively stayed behind the more experienced vampire.

Silas and the thing that had been Cotton charged at each other simultaneously, catching each other midair like two long lost lovers running into an embrace. Silas had immediately gone for the kill shot, grabbing the vulkodlak's head and rolling his whole body with it in an attempt to snap its neck. The wolf was too quick however and twisted away, circling around for another pass. Its giant paw struck out and connected with Silas's arm, tearing his shirt and drawing long bloody welts along his bicep. Silas didn't even seem to notice, tackling the vulkodlak and twisting it under him. It growled and bit at the air as it tried to free itself. 

Jared moved in as close as he dared, trying not to get tangled up in Silas's swinging limbs or the gnashing teeth of the wolf. He thought he had a clear shot when the wolf rolled Silas onto his back but as soon as Jared charged Silas had kicked himself clear and Jared found himself connecting with nothing but air. Jared watched in awe as the man he had taken as a mild esoteric librarian went back time and time again, fists connecting with the beast that easily outweighed him by double, his own war cries and howls every bit as loud and ferocious. His fangs were out and his eyes were black pools as he threw himself on the frenzied vulkodlak until finally, he pinned him beneath him. Seeing his opportunity Jared rushed forward, throwing himself on the beast and piercing its throat with the silver knife Klara had given him. The vulkodlak immediately went limp and Silas wasted no time in grasping its head and twisting it, the bones giving a wet crack as it succumbed. Jared expected it to return to the form of the man that had spawned it but it simply stayed as it was, its black fur bloodied and matted. 

Silas got up and dusted himself off. He was bleeding pretty profusely from the welts on his arm and it looked like the wolf had gotten in several bites before its defeat. “Do you.. I mean is there something I can do...” Jared asked.

Silas took a few heaving breaths. “No. We need blood. Whispers is smart in throwing us into battle, knowing necessity will drive us out if he damages us enough. We have to get out of here.”

“I think Klara is ready with her plan.”

*********************

They gathered one last time in the magic annex, battered and bloodied but not beaten. Masha immediately took control, asking where Astrid, Whispers and his men were exactly and making sure everyone knew their role. “It's extremely important that you give Addy time to place those canisters exactly right and then get the girls into the truck without Whispers suspecting anything.”

Jared stood over Shannon, hand on his chest as he tried to feel for his presence again. It was a bit stronger than it had been before but Jared was acutely aware that he was not yet out of the woods. They were on borrowed time, they both should have been dead by now. No, they were dead already. The worst thing had already happened and whatever followed now, it would be okay. It was more than they should have had. He lifted his brother into his arms and fell into place with the group.

They made their way through the increasingly bloodied and littered living quarters, past the hulking remains of the leyak and the crumpled form of Cotton the vulkodlak. Before entering the loading bay they stopped and Klara wrapped a thin rope around the wrists of the sisters, and then another one around Masha's wrist. Suddenly the girls appeared before her and it took a second for Jared to understand that they were an illusion, meant to obfuscate the girl's actual location and actions and most like to bait Whispers. This all seemed very dangerous, and hastily thought out, but Jared realized it was all that hey had.

“Remember, let me do the talking, you guys be quiet and look as defeated as possible. Just get the girls and yourselves into the truck, and then once you have everyone inside do not, under any circumstances, open those doors back up.” Masha admonished.

Masha nodded to her left, and Jared realized that she was telling Addy to place the mysterious canisters where they had planned. With the cord in place, she must have been able to see their actual location and movements. The adults waited as Masha watched over them, and as soon as she signaled they were ready, everyone else finally moved into the loading bay.

“Just get in the truck,” Masha reminded them under her breath. Of course, as soon as Whispers saw them the taunts and demands began again.

“Well, what have we here. Have you finally come to give me what I want?” he jeered as he made gleeful circles under the light from the security lamp.

“You promise you're going to let us go? If we give you the banshees?” Masha asked him. It looked to all the world that the girls were standing right in front of Masha but Jared knew from the brush against his calf as he carried Shannon toward the SUV that they were actually right there with the rest of the group. He had to hand it to Klara, she was cranky and not a fan of any of them but she had considerable skill and was doing her damnedest to get the entire crew through this.

While Silas and Jared made a fuss of dropping an unconscious Shannon and having to arrange him to get in the truck, Keera and Addy slipped past them, tucking themselves down into the floorboards, which Jared found out when he tried to get Shannon turned around. He simply kept his face neutral and adjusted Shannon's position.

“I have no use for the rest of you. You stay out of my business and I'm happy to look the other way as you drive off.”

Masha crossed her arms and stuck to her stance in the middle of the loading bay floor. “And what about Astrid and Michael?” she asked. There had been no sign of Michael, their potential betrayer in all this. She was beginning to wonder if he was involved at all.

“You can have the huldra. I'm not holding anyone else,” Whispers smirked. He walked over to Astrid and cut the ropes binding her feet. “As soon as I have those girls.”

“What happened to Michael?” Masha said, noticing the sly way he had answered the question.

“I suppose you mean that red-headed dhampyr. Yeah, sorry about that. He got a little, shall we say, uncooperative. I'll tell you where to pick up his body if you want it. Just give me those fucking girls.” He sniffed the air and then moaned lewdly. “They smell so fucking delicious.”

“Why are you doing this, Whispers? You don't need to feed off them. There's no reason to kill anyone for your food. For centuries now the moroi....”

“Oh screw you and your fake morality!” Whispers spun around, punctuating his declaration with wild swings of his arms. “You moroi are just as vicious and bloody as the strigoi, you just direct your nasty tendencies elsewhere. Usually at as.”

“Because you're fucking kidnapping, killing and eating people you asshole.”

Whispers cocked his head to the side and winked at her. “Apex predator baby. It's what I do.”

Masha gritted her teeth and palmed the little bottle in her hand. This back and forth was going to get her nowhere. She had to get Astrid in the car before Whispers figured out her little game. “You okay Astrid?” Masha asked, aware that the woman hadn't said a word this entire time.

“I've been better,” Astrid grumbled. Masha noted her pale skin was marked by multiple bruises and she was holding one arm at an odd angle. “You don't have to do this, Mash. We can still save those girls....” She was cut off when Whispers's hand connected with the side of her face.

“That's enough out of you. She's doing the smart thing. You need to shut up now.” Whispers threatened. Astrid tipped her head and glared at him.

“Just get in the truck, Astrid. Let me handle this," Mash instructed.

“Davrosh is in charge, not you...”

“Davrosh is dead. I'm in charge now. Get in the fucking truck Astrid!” Masha bellowed. Astrid finally started to move but Whispers quickly stepped in front of her.

“Hey now, I want those girls first.”

“They're right here, Whispers. I'll wait to get in the truck until you have them but you have to let Astrid go first.”

Whispers chewed on the ends of his fingers, his ubiquitous black nail polish chipping even further. “Fine,” he spat. “But don't try anything or not one of you will leave this place alive.” He stepped aside and Astrid quickly got into the passenger side of the truck next to Silas.

As the door of the SUV closed Masha felt a sort of peace. Astrid was safe now, that made everyone that was left to save was successfully tucked away in that vehicle. She wondered if Klara had realized when they formulated this plan that there was little chance of it working past this point. Had she known what Masha knew she would have to do when it inevitably failed? The girl was smart and practical, a realist. Masha thought that she understood. She only hoped the others would too. She watched as Whispers chortled and smacked his lips, looking at where he thought the girls were. Maybe, she thought. Maybe there's a chance this will work.

She started to walk forward, urging her phantom sisters closer toward Whispers. They stopped right at the doorway, between the two unseen metal canisters, the invisible barrier keeping Whispers from reaching forward and trying to touch them. Klara and Addy were doing a great job from their end. Everything was going perfectly.

“Once we leave Silas revokes claim to this domicile. The barrier will drop and they are yours.”

“No. I want them now.”

“No. We get to leave first. I'm not about to trust you. Think of them as in escrow now.”

“Uh, boss...” One of Whispers's henchman, a sloppy little man in baggy clothes, stepped out of the shadows. “I think maybe there's a problem.”

Masha's heart would have stopped if it had been beating. She struggled to keep her poker face and started walking slowly towards the truck.

“What the fuck do you mean, Conner?” Whispers snapped. He turned his attention to Masha. “Stop moving bitch!” he roared.

“I don't think that's them. The banshees I mean. I think it's a trick.”

Whispers upper lip pulled back as he looked at Masha in pure fury. “I want those girls over here now or I'll blow up that truck before you even start your engine.” He motioned to his henchmen again and another one stepped forward, this time with something that looked like a small rocket launcher. Masha was stunned for a moment, she wasn't sure when the strigoi had taken to traditional artillery but they certainly hadn't planned for this contingency. She knew the minute Whispers tried to touch those girls the illusion would crumble and he would know he had been tricked. Once that happened things could escalate much quicker than she could counter. Everyone in the truck would be at risk. She knew what she had to do.

Looking over at the SUV Masha could just make out Jared and Shannon in the backseat. Shannon was still unconscious, propped against his younger brothers shoulder, and Masha desperately wished she could look into his eyes one last time. Maybe this was better though, at least he would be spared this memory. She knew Silas would look out for them, despite all his speeches about staying out of the fray they were family and he was born to be a teacher. She smiled softly at them. She had done everything she could to balance her scales. Time was up.

As her thumb passed over the lid of the tiny vial she caught sight of Klara at the corner of her eye. Her expression changed to one of shock and her mouth formed a perfect “no” but of course it was too late. Masha's last thought was “Silly girl, how else did you think this was going to end?”

The second Masha turned the opened vial upside down everything exploded in white light. The occupants of the truck quickly ducked their heads and covered their eyes but it took precious moments before they were able to see again. Jared felt it even before his eyes adjusted or he was able to look out on the piles of ashes where Whispers and his men had been, where Masha had been. There was an emptiness, a pull of panic and hopelessness and then something like a scream felt, and he knew Masha was gone, their bond was severed. The banshees began their lament as Silas wordlessly started the car.

*********************Epilogue

Astrid opened the motel room door to find her sister Linnea on the other side. She was carrying several large totes and was accompanied by a smaller woman with wild brown hair that matched the two girls currently eating cheeseburgers on the bed. “I think you have something we lost,” she said with a soft smile as she let herself into the room.

Astrid took a tote from Linnea as the girls looked up and saw their mother. They dropped their food and rushed into her arms the room was awash in soft whistles and whispers that Astrid knew was their way of communicating when non-banshee ears were in the vicinity. She quietly knocked on the adjoining door before she and Linnea excused themselves into the other half of the suite.

Shannon and Jared were stretched on one of the beds watching a show on motorbikes and Silas was reading. Klara had yet to return from her trip to the nearby bodega. Astrid pulled some blood out of the tote handing it first to Shannon who began to drink hungrily and then Silas, who was a little more restrained in his approach.

“Keera and Addy's mum is here. She's very grateful,” Linnea supplied.

Jared nodded but Shannon made no attempt to acknowledge her. He had asked for Masha as soon as he woke up but hadn't said another word since Jared had explained what happened. “So now what?” Jared asked.

“We get you two reunited with your people,” Silas said. “They must be mad with worry by now. And then we start getting you trained.”

“We're in the middle of a tour,” Jared pointed out.

“I'll come with you. It's too dangerous to be alone right now, and you don't want to draw any further attention by continuing your disappearing act. Klara has agreed to come too, and I think you'd be wise to accept her offer. There's a lot she can help you with.”

“I don't know how we're going to explain all this....”

“I'll take care of it. You can't tell people what's happened to you obviously but I've had some experience integrating back into society as human. You'll get through this. It will be easier than you think.”

Jared looked over at Shannon, the side of his face still ragged but healing. “Look, man,” he said gently. “I know you're not doing so good with this. Can you go back to the tour? We can figure something out if you can't.” Shannon nodded and discarded an empty bag before ripping into another one. “Does that mean yes you can back?” Shannon nodded again.

“Then it's settled,” Silas said, rising from the other bed. “We orphans will stick together.”

 

_And this is where we leave you for now dear reader, to decide for yourselves if a life better lived in devotion and service to others and sacrificed for the savior of her family is enough to balance the scales of justice. Our orphans will return to their lives for now, but a much different road lies before them than the one they had planned. Let us hope that they attend to their lessons well. Their new world awaits._

 

**Coming soon, Fangs and Fairytales: The Two Princes**

 


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